Humanity would have suffered had Facebook been allowed to use Libra to privatise the international payments system. In sharp contrast to Bitcoin, however, Libra tokens would be fully backed by copper-bottomed assets. Fiscal policy’s efficacy would suffer as the tax base shrunk, with every payment shifting to a global payments system residing within Facebook. That is why it is a good thing that Libra is unraveling, along with Zuckerberg’s dream of a private global payments monopoly. Brilliant ideas that would be catastrophic in the hands of buccaneering privateers should be pressed into public service.

Source: Irish Examiner October 24, 2019 22:52 UTC