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Everything you need to know about Libra, Facebook’s ambitious cryptocurrency

Facebook is planning to launch a cryptocurrency it hopes will “transform the global economy.” The currency, named Libra, is being developed by Facebook, but the company intends to share control with a consortium of organizations, including venture capital firms, credit card companies, and other tech giants.

At launch, you’ll be able to send Libra inside of Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, with it mostly being meant as an intermediary for transferring traditional currencies. Eventually, Facebook hopes Libra will be accepted as a form of payment, and other financial services will be built on top of its blockchain-based network.

Facebook is also launching a subsidiary company, Calibra, which will develop products and services based around Libra. It’s where Facebook intends to make money off of the cryptocurrency, and it’ll be starting with the launch of its digital wallet. Calibra will also handle Libra integrations for Facebook’s other products.

Given Facebook’s lofty goals — and its reputation for disregarding privacy and exacerbating immense political and social issues throughout the world — the announcement of Libra was followed by immediate backlash from regulators. Facebook will have a lot of questions to answer ahead of the currency’s launch in the first half of 2020.

  • Ashley Carman

    Oct 24, 2019

    Ashley Carman

    Jack Dorsey says ‘hell no’ to joining Libra

    Second Tech For Good Summit At Hotel De Marigny In Paris
    Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images

    Twitter will never join Libra, CEO Jack Dorsey said today at a Twitter media event in New York City. He said “hell no” when asked if he would join and explained that the Facebook-created cryptocurrency initiative didn’t need to be a cryptocurrency to pull of its broader goals of democratizing the financial system. “I don’t know if it’s a gimmick,” Dorsey said, “but a cryptocurrency wasn’t necessary to make that work”

    “It’s not an internet open standard that was born on the internet,” Dorsey said. “It was born out of a company’s intention, and it’s not consistent with what I personally believe and what I want our company to stand for.”

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  • Russell Brandom

    Oct 9, 2019

    Russell Brandom

    Senators pressure Visa and Mastercard over work on Facebook’s blockchain project

    Illustration by William Joel / The Verge

    Lawmakers have begun actively pressuring members of the Libra Association, the international blockchain payments project led by Facebook, to reconsider their involvement with the group.

    In a new letter sent to the CEOs of Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe, Sens. Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) warn of enormous risks inherent in the Libra project, including facilitating criminal and terrorist financing and destabilizing the global financial system. The letter also suggests the companies would face increased oversight from financial regulators in their conventional, non-blockchain businesses if they continue with the association.

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  • Nick Statt

    Oct 4, 2019

    Nick Statt

    Apple CEO Tim Cook slams Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency as a power grab

    Consumers Line Up As Apple’s iPhone 11 Goes On Sale In Stores
    Photo by Drew Angerer / Getty Images

    Apple CEO Tim Cook had some choice words when asked about Facebook’s controversial blockchain project Libra, with the chief executive openly characterizing the company’s plans to launch a cryptocurrency as a blatant power grab. Speaking with the French newspaper Les Echos, Cook shot down any notion that Apple might be considering launching a digital currency of its own, given its recent investments in digital wallets, mobile payments, and consumer credit with the new Goldman Sachs-backed Apple Card.

    “No. I really think that a currency should stay in the hands of countries. I’m not comfortable with the idea of a private group setting up a competing currency,” Cook told the publication in an interview published today. “A private company shouldn’t be looking to gain power this way.”

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  • Nick Statt

    Oct 4, 2019

    Nick Statt

    PayPal withdraws support for Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency

    Illustration by William Joel / The Verge

    PayPal has decided to withdraw from the Libra Association, the 28-member nonprofit organization formed in June 2019 to oversee the cryptocurrency’s creation and eventual consumer rollout.

    The company doesn’t cite a specific reason, saying only in a statement to The Verge that it decided “to forgo further participation in the Libra Association at this time and to continue to focus on advancing our existing mission and business priorities as we strive to democratize access to financial services for underserved populations.”

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  • Russell Brandom

    Jul 17, 2019

    Russell Brandom

    ‘I don’t think you should launch Libra at all,’ congresswoman tells Facebook

    Rep. Carolyn Maloney...
    Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call

    On Wednesday, Facebook cryptocurrency chief David Marcus faced Congress for a second round of questioning, this time from the House Financial Services committee. As in Tuesday’s Senate hearing, Marcus faced deep concerns over Facebook’s previous privacy issues, but there was also new skepticism over the nature of the Libra project itself.

    “I don’t think you should launch Libra at all,” Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) told Marcus in one exchange, “because the creation of a new currency is a core government function and should be left to democratically accountable institutions, that are accountable to the American people. But at the very least, you should agree to do this small pilot program first, fully overseen by the Federal Reserve and the SEC.”

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  • Russell Brandom

    Jul 16, 2019

    Russell Brandom

    Senators aren’t sold on Facebook’s Libra project

    Senate Banking Committee Holds Hearing On Facebook’s Proposed Crypto Currency
    Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

    On Tuesday, Facebook’s head of blockchain projects David Marcus appeared before the Senate Banking Committee to explain Facebook’s controversial Libra project. But while the arcane details of blockchain governance were difficult to pin down, the committee quickly zeroed in on a simpler question: Can we trust Facebook to run its own currency?

    Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) led off the hearing with a blistering rebuke of the company, putting the new project in the context of a string of scandals ranging from Cambridge Analytica to racial massacres in Myanmar.

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  • Russell Brandom

    Jul 15, 2019

    Russell Brandom

    House Democrats are considering a bill to ban Facebook from the finance industry

    Illustration by William Joel / The Verge

    Democrats in Congress are considering a new bill that would stop Facebook’s cryptocurrency plans in its tracks. Dubbed the Keep Big Tech Out of Finance Act, the new bill would explicitly ban large platform companies from performing banking functions. The bill would be a direct rebuke to Facebook’s plans with the Libra cryptocurrency, which would likely have to be severed from the company if the bill were introduced and passed.

    The bill has not yet been introduced to Congress, and as a result, its contents are far from final. Still, it has been the subject of significant interest as representatives from Facebook appear before the House Banking Committee on Wednesday. The Verge obtained a draft copy of the bill that was circulated for discussion.

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  • Jacob Kastrenakes

    Jul 15, 2019

    Jacob Kastrenakes

    Facebook tells Congress how it thinks Libra should be regulated

    Image: Facebook

    Facebook will not launch the cryptocurrency Libra until it has “fully addressed regulatory concerns,” according to David Marcus, the head of Facebook’s Calibra. The remarks are prepared testimony he plans to give tomorrow, in front of the US Senate Banking Committee.

    The testimony outlines how Facebook believes Libra — the cryptocurrency it plans to launch next year, with an initial focus on transferring money — will be regulated across the globe. It comes in response to concerns from top lawmakers, who have called on Facebook to testify about its plans to offer banking-related services. It also comes just days after President Trump indicated that Facebook may have to be regulated like a bank in order to offer these services. (This suggestion is somewhat different than the Securities and Exchange Commission’s take, which is that Libra may be an exchange-traded fund.)

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  • Elizabeth Lopatto

    Jun 26, 2019

    Elizabeth Lopatto

    Facebook’s cryptocurrency Libra, explained

    Illustration by William Joel / The Verge

    What is Libra?

    It’s an excellent book by Don DeLillo, the American master. Published in 1988, it is a fictional account of the life of Lee Harvey Oswald, President John F. Kennedy’s eventual assassin. It’s better than White Noise but not as good as Underworld.

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  • Andrew Marino

    Jun 21, 2019

    Andrew Marino

    Vergecast: Facebook’s Libra, Section 230 in jeopardy, and RCS in the hands of Google

    Photo by James Bareham / The Verge

    This is the third Vergecast episode of the week, but we’ve still got a lot of news to talk about. Host Nilay Patel warms up the show with some fun-yet-depressing gadget fails and then shifts gears into the larger news events in technology that have been unveiled over the past few days.

    Our expert panelists break it all down for you. Paul Miller explains what Facebook’s new cryptocurrency, Libra, actually is and how it differs from bitcoin. Adi Robertson expounds upon Sen. Josh Hawley’s (R-MO) move to amend Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Finally, Dieter updates us with how Google is taking charge of RCS and messaging for Android.

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  • Mary Beth Griggs

    Jun 20, 2019

    Mary Beth Griggs

    Facebook’s Libra won’t be as power-hungry as Bitcoin

    Facebook Prineville Data Center
    Facebook Prineville Data Center
    Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

    Libra, Facebook’s new cryptocurrency, is expected to have a smaller environmental footprint compared to some of its more notorious blockchain brethren, including bitcoin, according to experts. Its energy demands are projected to be more like those of existing data centers — which, while still demanding, aren’t quite as energy-hungry as mining bitcoins.

    The currency hasn’t launched yet, so it’s hard to know how those claims will stack up against reality. But its design — more centralized than most cryptocurrencies — means that Libra will likely draw less energy. Unlike its more decentralized peers, only a few trusted members of the Libra Association, the centralized hub for the currency, can create Libra.

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  • Jon Porter

    Jun 20, 2019

    Jon Porter

    Facebook’s Calibra logo looks very familiar

    Image: Current

    Plenty of people aren’t happy about the idea of Facebook getting into financial services, but startup bank Current has a slightly different gripe — the logo used by Facebook’s Calibra subsidiary, consisting of a simple tilde mark within a circle, bears a remarkable similarity to its own. The bank has posted a comparison of the two logos with the message, “This is what happens when you only have 1 crayon left.”

    Current is a startup bank that first launched in 2017 with an app-controlled debit card designed for kids, and at the end of last year it launched a regular checking account. As well as being able to manage your account using an app, Current also advertises that it can be used as a way for users to pay their friends, not unlike the functionality that will be offered by Calibra when it launches next year.

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  • Makena Kelly

    Jun 19, 2019

    Makena Kelly

    The Senate will hold a hearing next month on Facebook’s Libra currency

    Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell Testifies Before Senate Banking Committee
    Photo by Joshua Roberts/Getty Images

    On Wednesday, the Senate Banking Committee announced it will be holding a hearing next month to question witnesses over Facebook’s new cryptocurrency initiative, Libra.

    The hearing, entitled “Examining Facebook’s Proposed Digital Currency and Data Privacy Considerations,” is set for July 16th at 10AM ET. The plans come shortly after Facebook formally announced its new cryptocurrency and blockchain ecosystem, Libra. Facebook’s plan was met with harsh criticism from lawmakers, as well as calls for investigation into the potential consumer risks.

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  • Makena Kelly

    Jun 18, 2019

    Makena Kelly

    Top Democrat calls for Facebook to halt cryptocurrency plans until Congress investigates

    Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin Testifies Before The House Financial Services Committee
    Photo by Zach Gibson/Getty Images

    Hours after Facebook announced its plans for a global cryptocurrency project, a top House Democrat is calling for Facebook to halt its plans until Congress and regulators have had a chance to investigate potential risks.

    “With the announcement that it plans to create a cryptocurrency, Facebook is continuing its unchecked expansion and extending its reach into the lives of its users,” House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) said in a statement. “Given the company’s troubled past, I am requesting that Facebook agree to a moratorium on any movement forward on developing a cryptocurrency until Congress and regulators have the opportunity to examine these issues and take action.”

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  • Russell Brandom

    Jun 18, 2019

    Russell Brandom

    Facebook’s cryptocurrency has a trust problem

    Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

    From the beginning, cryptocurrency was about trust. “The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that’s required to make it work,” Satoshi Nakamoto wrote in the first public announcement of the bitcoin system. “The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust.” Most of what we associate with cryptocurrency — the dense technology, the mining gold rush, the alarming price swings — is the direct result of that basic refusal to trust a central financial authority.

    Now, that power is in Facebook’s hands. This morning, Facebook announced an ambitious new cryptocurrency called Libra, to be managed by an association of tech and finance companies including Facebook alongside more conventional banking companies like Visa and Mastercard. It’s a hugely ambitious project, basically Facebook’s take on what a global financial blockchain could be. On a technical level, Libra is broadly similar to bitcoin and Ethereum: it has the same anonymity properties, and the same support for smart contracts and independent apps. In theory, it’s everything good about cryptocurrency, only bigger and faster.

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  • Jun 18, 2019

    Colin Lecher

    European regulators are already pressing Facebook about its cryptocurrency

    Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

    As Facebook unveiled its cryptocurrency project today, European officials quickly called for scrutiny of the plan, raising concerns over whether the project was sufficiently regulated.

    According to comments reported by Bloomberg, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Facebook’s cryptocurrency, called Libra, must not “become a sovereign currency.”

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  • Nick Statt

    Jun 18, 2019

    Nick Statt

    Facebook’s Calibra is a secret weapon for monetizing its new cryptocurrency

    Facebook’s announcement this morning of a new cryptocurrency, Libra, and the nonprofit association that will oversee it raises questions about the future of global banking and Facebook’s role in it. But behind Facebook’s ambitions to create a quasi-nation state ruled by mostly corporate interests is a secret weapon, one the company hopes it can use to create another platform used by billions of people — and generate enormous new revenue streams along the way.

    It’s called Calibra, and it’s a new subsidiary of Facebook the company is launching to build financial services and software on top of the Libra blockchain. At first blush, Calibra resembles a fairly standard payments company — but its tight integration with Facebook’s enormous user base could give it a significant advantage over any rivals. Thanks to its proximity to the technical development of Libra, and its ability to leverage WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram, Calibra could very well become Facebook’s next big thing.

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  • Nick Statt

    Jun 18, 2019

    Nick Statt

    Facebook confirms it will launch a cryptocurrency called Libra in 2020

    Image: Facebook

    Facebook is finally ready to talk about its blockchain plans. Following numerous reports unraveling its upcoming announcement in detail, the company today said that its in-development global cryptocurrency, called Libra, will launch next year alongside the underlying blockchain-based network that will support it.

    The currency is designed not to be a speculative asset, like Bitcoin, but a form of digital money backed by a reserve of assets. You will one day be able to use Libra as payment for online and offline services, Facebook executives say. At the beginning, the company imagines Libra will be used mainly to transfer money between individuals in developing countries who lack access to traditional banks. Eventually, the goal is to create the first truly mainstream cryptocurrency: a decentralized global form of payment that is as stable as the dollar, can be used to buy almost anything, and can support an entire range of financial products — from banking to loans to credit.

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  • Jon Porter

    Jun 14, 2019

    Jon Porter

    Facebook’s cryptocurrency to debut next week backed by Visa, Mastercard, Uber, and others: WSJ

    Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

    Facebook has secured the backing of over a dozen companies for its upcoming Libra cryptocurrency set to be announced next week, The Wall Street Journal reports. These companies include major financial organizations like Visa and Mastercard, and internet darlings like PayPal, Uber, Stripe, and Booking.com. Each will invest around $10 million to fund development of the currency, and will become part of the Libra Association, an independent consortium that will govern the digital coin independently of Facebook.

    The involvement of major financial firms like Visa and Mastercard is interesting, because cryptocurrencies are typically seen as providing a cheaper alternative to these payment networks. The WSJ speculates that these companies want to get involved so they can monitor Facebook’s payment ambitions, as well as benefit from the popularity of the currency should it take off with Facebook’s 2.4 billion monthly active users.

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  • Facebook’s new cryptocurrency may launch this month, a report says

    Facebook will announce a new cryptocurrency this month, according to a report by The Information. Facebook employees who work on the project, called Libra, can choose to be paid in the cryptocurrency token instead of hard cash, the report says. Previous reports have suggested that a global launch would happen next year.

    Besides Facebook employees, the target market for the cryptocurrency is “developing nations where government-backed currencies are more volatile,” The Information reported. The token will mainly be used in Facebook’s products — WhatsApp, Messenger and so on — but the company is also planning ATM-like physical terminals. There will also be sign-up bonuses for merchants who accept Facebook’s cryptocurrency as payment.

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  • Jon Porter

    May 24, 2019

    Jon Porter

    Facebook’s ‘GlobalCoin’ cryptocurrency to launch in 2020, report claims

    Illustration by James Bareham / The Verge

    Facebook plans to launch its cryptocurrency by the first quarter of next year, reports BBC News. The company is expected to reveal more details about the currency this summer, before testing begins later in 2019. The currency, which is being referred to internally as “GlobalCoin,” will reportedly be available in around a dozen countries at launch, where it’s expected to offer people affordable and secure payments without the need for a bank account.

    The currency will need to overcome numerous technical and regulatory hurdles before it can be launched. According to BBC News, last month Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg met with the Bank of England’s governor Mark Carney to discuss the opportunities and risks of the planned digital currency. However, Facebook might have a harder job on its hands in India, which has taken a hostile attitude towards virtual currencies. India is reported to be a key focus for the new currency, where Facebook hopes it will allow Indian workers abroad to send money back home to their families using WhatsApp.

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  • Chaim Gartenberg

    Dec 21, 2018

    Chaim Gartenberg

    Facebook reportedly building cryptocurrency for WhatsApp money transfers

    Illustration by James Bareham / The Verge

    Facebook is building a cryptocurrency designed to make it easier to transfer money on WhatsApp, according to Bloomberg. The currency will reportedly be focused on India and allowing Indian workers abroad to send money back home, something that other Bitcoin startups have already been working to solve given the difficult and expensive process for international transfers.

    Facebook has been looking to develop its own cryptocurrency at least as far back as May, when Cheddar first broke the news. Around that time, Facebook Messenger leader David Marcus was reassigned to lead a new blockchain division, focused on exploring “how to best leverage Blockchain across Facebook, starting from scratch.”

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  • Shannon Liao

    May 8, 2018

    Shannon Liao

    Facebook is creating a mysterious blockchain division

    Facebook is launching its own blockchain division as part of a broader reorganization of its executive lineup, multiple sources confirmed to Recode today. The move comes four months after CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post that he wanted the company to “go deeper and study the positive and negative aspects of” cryptocurrencies.

    The company is saying little about its blockchain division for now. But we do know that David Marcus, who was serving as the vice president of messaging products and overseeing Facebook Messenger, will be running the blockchain group. The former CEO of PayPal, Marcus has long been interested in payments, and he currently serves on the board of bitcoin exchange Coinbase. “After nearly four unbelievably rewarding years leading Messenger, I have decided it was time for me to take on a new challenge,” Marcus wrote in a Facebook post, “I’m setting up a small group to explore how to best leverage Blockchain across Facebook, starting from scratch.”

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