Visa, Mastercard, Paypal Among First Companies to Back Facebook’s Cryptocurrency
According to a WSJ report, Facebook has managed to onboard some big names to support its foray into crypto. Visa, Mastercard, and Paypal will shell out a whopping $10 mln to be part of the Libra Association consortium and run a node.
Alex DovbnyaDisrupt, or you will be disrupted
Facebook teamed up with a slew of companies to build a new global payment network. Numerous reports about Mark Zuckerberg’s crypto ambitions started popping up since December.
A brand-new stablecoin, which will be backed a basket of fiat currencies to root out any price fluctuations, is expected to be launched on June 18.
It is not far-fetched to assume that Visa and Mastercard see Facebook’s cryptocurrency as an existential threat, which explains their eagerness to join the party early.
Notably, both of these companies started dabbling with Blockchain long before Facebook.
Yuri MolchanPretending to be decentralized
The purpose of the consortium is to make the soon-to-be-launched coin more decentralized.
The above-mentioned WSJ article also states that the coin won’t be attached to Facebook’s platform, which recently faced another data-related controversy.
Still, the coin that is controlled by a bunch of corporate giants pales in comparison to Bitcoin. The O.G. coin, which celebrated its 10th anniversary, is run without any central server. Instead, it is supported by a huge network of miners.
The real question is whether anyone cares about centralization.
Arman Shirinyan
U.Today Editorial Team
Vladislav Sopov
Dan Burgin