empowers billions of people ,” according to the project ’ s white paper . The currency has backing not only from Facebook , but from more than a dozen companies across the financial , e-commerce , tech and telecommunications industries .
Libra is being billed as a ‘ stablecoin ’ which will have a value that is linked to several global currencies , including the US Dollar , the Euro and the Yen . Another way in which Libra plans to create stability is by running in a centralised fashion . Whereas Bitcoin allows anyone with a computer to run it as a node on the blockchain , Libra will initially only run on servers of the companies that are backing the currency : Ebay , Uber , Paypal , Facebook . The white paper said that Facebook has plans to decentralise Libra over the next five years , but for now the extra speed that centralising the process generates is a necessary step .
Bringing a stable cryptocurrency to the two-and-a-bit billion Facebook users - particularly those in underbanked nations - may be a massive adoption driver for the technology . Depending on how well Libra ’ s first year goes , it could mark cryptocurrency ’ s entry into the true mainstream .
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