OK, everybody has now heard about Facebook's cryptocurrency (Libra) and the 'buzz' is really loud. BUT, hold on. A brilliant friend (Daniel Evans-part of the team that started the Gibraltar Stock Exchange) (GSX) points out some VERY significant facts that you might want to take a look at. These silly facts always get in the way of excitement. GREAT READ!
Bill Taylor/Fintek Capital
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Daniel Evans is part of the team that started the Gibraltar Stock Exchange (GSX), which is now open for security token listings. Opinions are his own.
The excitement about Libra is premature. Maybe Zuck’s got more to share, but right now there’s very little information, and Libra has a lot to prove. Libra’s main stated mission is to service the world’s poor and unbanked. This seems unlikely to be the whole story…
Facebook’s source for the 1.7 billion figure is the World Bank’s Global Findex Database 2017. Findex also believes that 1 billion of these have mobile phones and 500 million have internet access.
However, Findex also says that over half of the 1.7 billion come from just seven countries: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria and Pakistan.
More than half of these are in places where:
- Cryptocurrencies are banned
- Facebook can’t freely operate
- The country is under heavy FATF restrictions (due to money-laundering and anti-crime concerns)
- Or, it faces other limitations.
Targeting these unbanked just doesn’t seem plausible. How are they going to get in and get people to use it? Who and how many people are realistically going to join? How fast does Libra realistically expect adoption to be and is it worth it?
These jurisdictional limitations also help to explain why Libra doesn’t have any local partners anywhere with a relevant market presence or customer base. Out of the 28 founder members of the Libra Association, only one, Mercado, is based in a developing part of the world (South America). None are based in Africa or Asia where most of the world’s unbanked actually are..."
Full Story at Coindesk.com