Facebook’s cryptocurrency | Libra

What is a cryptocurrency?

It can be termed as “Digital Money” that can be bought and sold on the web. It uses strong cryptographic algorithms to work upon the transaction security as well as verification. The number one cryptocurrency used in the world is Bitcoin that works on Blockchain technology and can be easily bought and sold as a digital asset.

What is a blockchain network?

Blockchain can be termed as a centralized distributed ledger system that can easily record the transaction between two nodes or parties. The blockchain technology was supposedly invented by Satoshi Nakamoto, who is either a person or a group of individuals working together for the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.

The invention of Blockchain solved the problem of double-spending, where a person can only digital assets once and that would be verified by all the nodes or parties present in the network. You can think blockchain as a self-updating doubly linked list. Each party has the hash of every transaction that takes place inside the blockchain network, and even if a hacker hacks and gets inside the network, it is very difficult or near impossible to hack it because you would need to create hash for every node that is present and for that you would need to own 51% of the network that is impossible at this time.

Therefore, this technology is extremely safe, even safer than the banks that we use to complete our transactions in daily life. The blockchain technology is a superb invention and can even be used to implement real-life scenarios. We can take the example of “Dubai Smart city” project that was introduced to make Dubai the “best city in the world” using this technology

Facebook’s Digital Currency | Libra

Libra is the proposed digital currency by the company Facebook, Inc. and Libra Association. Besides, this was supposed to be Facebook’s first blockchain association and is still unreleased. The code that is used to create the Libra project is live on GitHub that you can find here. It was officially announced in June 2019.

Facebook has claimed that they want to make this cryptocurrency to support the 1.7 billion people who do not have bank accounts. If you are wondering how you can start using Libra, you can’t right now. As claimed, it was supposed to release in 2020 but still is in the process of development as you can literally check the code used to design Libra as stated above. Furthermore, Facebook was initially supposed to circulate some amount of Libra for free so that it would attract the crowd when it would get released. This project was led by David Marcus, a former PayPal employee

The Libra project proposed by Facebook had two parts: The Libra token which is somewhat a better and optimized version of what we use in Bitcoin that can be used to do payments at places such as Uber, etc. and a Blockchain network that deals with the transaction and maintains the record on the servers so that there is no dual spending on any transaction.

Facebook Altering its plan of Libra

After severe political and regulatory pressure, Facebook has decided to alter the plan that it has for Libra. According to the report, Facebook has dropped the plan of creating Libra, the cryptocurrency token that it was supposed to create with the Libra organization. Facebook created the Libra Affiliation, where Calibra and another subsidiary would depict one member. The foreign money was also supported by the collaboration of large names such as Mastercard, PayPal, and Visa when this project was introduced.

Instead, Facebook plans to transition the currently ongoing Libra project to support the US government supported currency i.e. Dollar and Euro and the Libra Token when it is completed.

Calibra | The Digital Cryptocurrency Wallet

Calibra is the wallet designed by Libra Association, for the cryptocurrency Libra. Originally, this was supposed to get released in this Summer, but that has been postponed to October. The information report states that the wallet designed to hold Facebook’s cryptocurrency Libra would also extend its support to the Facebook messenger and WhatsApp.

Facebook states that the money storing and the transfer feature of the wallet Calibra wood soon arrive with the app at its initial release that is scheduled in October

Conclusion

               According to the reports Facebook is still committed to the Libra project and has not entirely left its hand at it but you can expect that you won’t be hearing about releasing this cryptocurrency to the public anytime soon

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