That\u2019s good news for the likes of Zynga \u2013 and it could be good news for cryptocurrency gaming sites in general. Libra will be built on the blockchain platform but has the potential to make cryptocurrency easier to understand, with more practical day-to-day uses than bitcoin, for example, which is an asset whose primary function is trading and has relatively few real-world opportunities to spend.<\/p>\n
\n
Libra will also be tethered to centralized global currencies like the dollar and the euro, which will anchor its value and avoid the wild fluctuations of cryptocurrencies, and this should make it attractive to people in developing countries with volatile local currencies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
But such countries generally guard against capital flight and don\u2019t want their citizens converting cash into decentralized digital currencies to spend in a global marketplace, and so Facebook would need regulatory sign-off that would be unlikely to materialize.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, officials in the developed world have expressed concern about Facebook\u2019s move into the financial sector, particularly with respect to privacy issues.<\/p>\n
This is not Facebook\u2019s first attempt to introduce its own currency. Facebook Credits were a short-lived in-platform digital currency that would allow users to buy goods in the social platform\u2019s online games. Speculation at the time suggested the company planned for Facebook Credits to one day become a universal currency system, but they were phased out inexplicably in 2011.<\/p>\n
Libra is far greater in ambition and scope and could prove to be a revolutionary milestone in economic history \u2013 or it may fizzle out quickly, just like Facebook Credits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Facebook announced Tuesday that it will launch its own cryptocurrency next year, Libra, which it claims will offer its 2.4 billion users access to \u201cbetter, cheaper, and open financial services.\u201d For a company that has been accused of keeping secrets about how it employs user data, Libra has to the worst kept secret in Silicon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":107311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,22988,16693],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Facebook to Launch Own Currency, Libra, What Does It Mean for Gaming?<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n