Headlines this week are revealing that Facebook may be able to add another willing member to its Libra coalition.
“Global payment service provider Checkout.com said on Tuesday it would join Libra Association, the entity managing the Facebook-led effort to build global digital currency Libra,” reports Reuters today.
But wait a minute – is Libra still a thing?
Anyone who’s not playing close attention may have assumed that the stablecoin is basically dead in the water after enormous amounts of regulatory concern last year and a dearth of headlines into 2020.
However, a closer look at the industry shows that Facebook does continue to move ahead with Libra, even though major backers like Visa and MasterCard, and more lately Vodafone, have now bowed out.
As of last summer, analysts like Clare Duffy at CNN Business were describing the situation this way:
“Lawmakers and regulators are concerned about a new financial tool that will suddenly be available to Facebook’s 2.4 billion users, and they are scrambling to determine how to oversee it,” Duffy wrote. “Some have proposed legislation to stop Libra altogether. … (recently) Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the government is worried Libra could be used for human trafficking, purchasing illegal drugs and other illicit uses. …Facebook said it is willing to delay its entrance into the cryptocurrency market to work with regulators, though that may not stop the Libra rollout altogether.”
Reports like this predominated, and since then, there has been sustained resistance to Libra as a potential destabilize for world economies.
A timeline published in the last few days at Coindesk shows in great detail everything that has happened with Libra to date.
It also shows that as recently as two weeks ago, Facebook was announcing that it will no longer issue one stablecoin, but instead, will promote a basket of stablecoins, each one based on a fiat currency.
This isn’t a detail – it’s something that basically changes the character and nature of the whole project.
So this doesn’t sound like anything that’s going to experience an actual launch anytime soon.
Besides, regulators are still working to counter the effects of any Facebook cryptocurrency in markets. From Cointdesk’s report chronology:
“April 17, 2020: U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia says libra’s revamp still does not address questions of how the stablecoin(s) will impact the global economy and is “insufficient” to satisfy lawmakers’ concerns.”
Until Facebook can make headway with U.S. officials, it’s probably dead in the water no matter how many partners sign on.