Facebook’s future βLibraβ draws a lot of attention. On this matter, we hear a lot of things – true and false. Even the French Minister of Economy said: βMoney created by private entities could challenge the Currencies of the Statesβ. But nowadays, no State creates a dime of money. Private entities, Central Banks and Commercial Banks, create all the money that currently exists.
Not only a Currency…
Very few have noted that Libra is not only a Currency. Under the hood, Facebook also wants to manage identities. Their aim to solve the βproblemβ of anonymity on the Internet. In their whitepaper, they state:
An additional goal of the association is to develop and promote an open identity standard. We believe that decentralized and portable digital identity is a prerequisite to financial inclusion and competition.
Let’s read between the lines. The term βdecentralizedβ here means βservers spread across the different members of the associationβ. Thus, this model is fully centralized. In reality, only members of the association can manage those servers and control them. Thus, they present us a βcentralizedβ model and stick on it a βdecentralizedβ label. Keep your eyes open.
It already exists!…
However, I really don’t get why some are hypnotized by this βnoveltyβ. Actually, a system which offers the same functionalities already exists. Besides, it is a Free Software which obviously depends on no private entity: Duniter.
This software can manage a fully decentralized currency. In addition, monetary units are created only as the counterpart of a human living in the economy. Therefore, it doesn’t depend on the βgoodwillβ of an elite who would decide when and how to create it.
Above all, Identity Management in this software is also totally decentralized. No company, no group, no association, can control it. It is kept alive by human beings, sovereign individuals, who certify each other directly in a peer-to-peer manner, with no external intervention. The icing on the cake is that those individuals control the underlying blockchain that stores the currency.
… and it is already running!
Besides, Duniter is not a βwhitepaperβ of βsomething that may happen in the futureβ. A Libre Currency already exists and runs since March 2017. It is called Δ1. As of today, more than 2100 people (and growing fast!) support it in French-speaking countries (France, Belgium, Switzerland…). Besides, anyone can create other Libre Currencies all around the world, the software is available!
So, are we going to stay in our sofa and let Facebook take over the world? Or are we going to get a hold of our own destiny?
The decision is ours.
To get a better understanding of money, and especially Libre Money, I have published a book, βMoney: What You Don’t Knowβ:
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