When Facebook first launched Libra they laid out a grand plan to help reshape the financial system, that plan is now gone and they relaunch looks a lot more like another PayPal; “The original vision for Libra was one with wild crypto dreams of private money, free of regulation,” said David Gerard, a historian of digital currencies and author of Attack of the 50-foot Blockchain, to the FT. “This was never going to fly. Facebook is a real, touchable company. You can abuse people’s private information — but governments take the money very seriously.”; Libra 2.0 will no longer be a single currency but instead multiple digital coins backed by local currencies; the company also pulled back on being permission-less with approval now being needed to build on the network; legislators still have not warmly received the new version as they believe it is still too Facebook focused; “Even if this is scaled down, Facebook still has its detractors, especially in Congress,” said Ben Koltun, a Senior Research Analyst at Beacon Policy Advisers, to the FT. “The political barriers to Libra getting off the ground are still there.” Financial Times
