WHAT COULD GO WRONG

A game-changer for the world’s unbanked, or a Zuckerberg power grab for the global money supply? Inside the Libra wars

- James Ball

There were more than 2 400 cryptocurrencies in circulation by June 2019, with further launches on a daily basis. Most were nearly worthless, had been heard of by virtually no one, and never would be. So when yet another – called Libra – was announced on 18 June, you might’ve expected it to attract no more attention than any of the others.

But from the moment of its launch, Libra received a huge amount of attention. The project made many of the same promises most new digital currencies brag about: it’d work more efficiently than existing payment technologies, and it’d avoid the huge spikes and falls in value that made Bitcoin, the first and best-known cryptocurrency, such a roulette wheel. What was more eye-catching was its promise to target billions of the world’s unbanked – people with little or no access to the global financial system – to open up huge new business and work possibilities for at least some of the world’s poor, and revolutionise the global financial system.

The main reason people took notice this time was due to one of the main backers: Facebook. Freshly out of a seemingly endless series of data privacy scandals, the social media giant was now appearing as the lead partner in a plan to create a new global currency, alongside a coalition of other major tech, finance and commerce companies, and was promising to roll the whole thing out early this year.