Libra Competitors Enter The Race For Global Digital Currency

According to a16z, Libra competitors enter the race for global digital currency despite being enticing for regulators. Libra managed to convince they will earn the world’s favor so let’s read more about it in the following Libra news.

The announcement of the Celo network earlier this year marked the first one of the Libra Competitors putting a lot of stress on Libra and also forcing regulators to take further action. Libra’s failure stems far from facebook’s dramatic past and the plan to introduce a new global digital currency. The winner of the race will be the one that operates without having to threaten the monopoly position over the monetary system.

Despite the many obstacles, there is more room for regulatory approval of another digital currency. The investment fund a16z expects more companies such as Libra to emerge and some of them could have what it takes to win. Facebook’s announcement about spearheading the launch of the crypto payment network, gathered the attention of institutions, consumers, and the governments alike.

Today was a special day https://t.co/EGGZ8Jhxye

— Celo (@CeloOrg) May 19, 2020

As the hype around Libra unfolded, competitors emerged. The Celo network, a blockchain-based platform that aims to improve financial inclusion, is one of the main competitors of the Libra platform.  Besides the goal of improving the inclusion and bringing digital money directly to the unbanked, Celo and Libra have another thing in common: they raised capital from a16z. In an interview with Bloomberg, Katie Braun at a16z broke down the thesis of the fund. Braun outlined the focus sectors within the crypto-economy which includes another category ‘’internet money.’’

 “The third category is what we call Internet money, and this is building off the idea of Bitcoin but it’s solving for limitations of Bitcoin. Here you’ve seen us make investments in projects like Celo and Libra. And we think there will be other entrants in this category.’’

Libra’s announcement whipped up a media storm and got a lot of criticism from various arms of the governments. The ministers and people from the central banks from each continent condemned Libra saying that money cannot be privatized. Part of the reason for the backlash that Libra got was backed by a basket of existing fiat currencies and another reason was that Facebook is well known for data collection which could play a central role in the Libra consortium.