Facebook’s Libra Attracts High-Profile FinServ Support

According to reports out in The Wall Street Journal this morning, Facebook has found some big-name backers for its Libra cryptocurrency project set to debut next year.

Facebook reportedly plans to give the world the first sneak peak at the product next week.

The project has already found backing from over a dozen companies, according to the WSJ, a list that currently includes major names and players like Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc., PayPal Holdings Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc. on it. Every contributing firm or venture capitalist taking part in the project will invest about $10 million in a consortium that will be used to govern the Libra coin. The funds will be used to pay for the creation of the coin itself — which is designed to be a stablecoin, pegged to the value of government-issued currencies.  That will allow Libra to avoid some of the wild value swings that have become endemic to crypto forms like bitcoin.  When it is rolled out, Libra will make it easier for users to send and receive digital coins across the social media platform — funds that can be used to make purchases on Facebook and across the internet.

The WSJ also noted that talks with some of the partners are “ongoing” and that the total group of Libra backers could still be subject to change.

What remains unknown, and what the world is still waiting to learn, is how the exactly coin will work. Partners are still learning what their roles will be, according to what unnamed sources familiar with the project told the WSJ. The regulatory step of this process also remains a bit of a mystery box — and there have been at least some worries raised that the Libra coin could be used for money laundering purposes. That problem is common in the crypto world.

Neither Facebook nor members of the Libra Association (the consortium Facebook is building) will directly control the coin.  The current theory is that at least some members will act as nodes in the system, or places that verify transactions and maintain records of them.

As of yet, Facebook has offered no official comment.