Visa, Mastercard, Uber revealed as Facebook cryptocurrency backers
Facebook's backers are reportedly just as curious about Libra as everyone else.
Facebook has signed up more than a dozen companies to back its new cryptocurrency, which is expected to be formally announced with the release of a whitepaper on 18 June. Visa, Mastercard and Uber are among the backers according to The Wall Street Journal.
It's another significant piece of the gradually-revealed puzzle that is Facebook's cryptocurrency.
The investors, which reportedly include a range of e-commerce companies, venture capitalists and telecommunications firms, are reportedly putting $10 million each into the pot to become members of a consortium that will govern the digital coin.
The coin itself will be called Libra. It's a fitting name for a stablecoin, as Libra will be pegged to a basket of international fiat currencies. The talks with the group are continuing, The Wall Street Journal says, and the eventual membership of the group could change in the future.
18 June
A big reveal is expected on 18 June, with the release of a whitepaper that's meant to outline more of the actual details of the project. It will probably be equally informative for Facebook consortium members, who reportedly don't yet know how the coin will work or what their roles will be.
18 June is the date given to multiple investors, according to people familiar with the project. It was supposedly made public by accident when the Facebook head of financial services and payment partnerships for Northern Europe let it slip to German magazine WirtschaftWoche.
The technical and other details of the project are probably going to have a significant impact on the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Signs say Facebook is aiming to make Libra a semi-decentralised project, and it's likely that the coin will touch on multiple existing projects in different ways. As evidenced by today's Chainlink price move, which was spurred by a mention from Google, a nod from big tech companies is more than enough to move the nascent markets.
And in this case, Facebook's plans encompass Visa, Mastercard, Uber and many other big companies. As real cryptocurrency and blockchain adoption and usage come closer, winners and losers in the cryptocurrency markets will start emerging.
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Disclosure: The author holds BNB, ZIL at the time of writing.
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