The yet to be released <a href="https://libra.org/en-US/">Facebook Digital Currency</a> Libra has been forked into a decentralized project called “OpenLibra”. Since long Facebook has been struggling to get the Currency Up and running. This project has been controversial on many levels, be it legal, technical or geopolitical. Though it’s difficult to believe a “Non” Facebook Libra, but that seems to be the main appeal of this project.

Yesterday at the Ethereum Foundation’s DevCon 5 conference in Osaka Japan, the project “<strong>OpenLibra” was announced. It is billed as an “open platform for financial inclusion” and emphasized on it being “Not run by Facebook.</strong>”

Open Libra will function as a permissionless, <a href="https://www.cryptoknowmics.com/crypto/the-un-cybercrime-chief-says-cryptocurrency-derails-online-child-abuse-investigations/">decentralized crypto-currency</a> in the social media platform. The developers behind OpenLibra claim it to be compatible with its Facebook counterparts. The value of OpenLibra will also be pegged to that of Libra which is reportedly a stablecoin based on multiple fiat currencies. Some crypto-currency members are referring to this project as Hacking Facebook.

The Libra anyway faced a lot of criticism around the world and was under strong scrutiny from several governments and regulatory bodies. However, Lucas Geiger, co-founder of crypto startup Wireline who first announced the project, said that Open Libra will be having less regulatory exposure than Facebook’s project and is being built with an emphasis on decentralization. Also many consider that regulators won’t feel comfortable with Libra being Facebook less.

Ben Mezrich told CNBC, “<strong>This is all about trust. You can’t have a bank, you can’t be a new currency without people trusting it if you’re going to sit in the middle of it, and people don’t trust Facebook … I think that Amazon could pull this off because, for whatever reason, we all trust Amazon… We put our credit cards in there every day</strong>”

Mezrich’s view made a lot of sense as the trend says people were aware of Libra. Paypal recently withdrew its association with Libra and the report says it may lose more associations in the coming days. In the worst-case scenario if the trend continues to be downwards, the only cooperation left with Libra will be the 15 companies that are <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/facebook-libra-liberate-sanchayan-sinha">associated with Facebook</a>.

Well, there are no whitepapers for Open Libra, so it is not clear, how the project will achieve its goal, however the developers created a codebase which can be reviewed by the users. Though there is still a long way when both the currencies launch, it is assumed by many that Libra may not launch at all as it needs to gain more trust of international regulators and governments. And the newbie Open Libra too has to gain trust of almost everyone in the virtual space.

Welcome the liberated Libra

Debarati is a finance MBA who is a keen observer of the current crypto currency market. She likes to read and write about the game changer and industry transforming news of the market.

Welcome the liberated Libra

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