It was only a matter of time before Facebook tried to launch its own cryptocurrency.

Mark Zuckerberg likes to keep up with the times.

When the plan to launch ‘GlobalCoin’ (now referred to as ‘Libra’) was revealed last month, it was met with a lot of concern and speculation.

After all, Facebook doesn’t have a great track record when it comes to safely and responsibly handling user data.

Now even co-founder Chris Hughes is weighing in on the project, reports The Daily Beast.

“If even modestly successful, Libra would hand over much of the control of monetary policy from central banks to these private companies, which also include Visa, Uber, and Vodafone,” Hughes wrote in the Financial Times, calling on regulators worldwide to approach the endeavor with “exhaustive” scrutiny.

He elaborated on those ideas on Twitter. Hughes notes that while Facebook was clever to project the appearance of limited power in the project, at the end of the day Libra is Facebook—and its corporate partners—through and through.

Here’s more from Hughes on Twitter:

Recent history tells us that Facebook is often at its most dangerous in non-Western countries like Myanmar. Those developing countries are also where Facebook thinks that Libra will be the most successful.

Most of the world’s unbanked population lives in China or India, with Pakistan and Indonesia also containing large groups of people without access to banking.

In other words, the cryptocurrency will provide an alternative to traditional banking, but with some potentially terrible consequences.

Concerningly, Hughes argues it’s possible that Libra could actively destabilize struggling economies as their citizens seek to move into euros or dollars and away from local currencies, in turn disempowering central banks in those countries and “making it harder to stimulate the local economy” during an economic crisis.

“This currency would insert a powerful new corporate layer of monetary control between central banks and individuals,” Hughes wrote. “Inevitably, these companies will put their private interests— profits and influence —ahead of public ones.”

Hughes is clearly sceptical and he isn’t alone.

Beyond Hughes, lawmakers in the U.S. and Europe are rushing to prepare for the advent of Facebook’s global banking moonshot, with U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters even calling for a “moratorium” until Congress can examine the plan in depth. “Facebook is already too big and too powerful,” Sen. Sherrod Brown said, cautioning fellow lawmakers on the “risky” cryptocurrency.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Mairedeclared that regulators should double down on regulating Facebook and German member of the European Parliament Markus Ferber cautioned that Facebook could create a “shadow bank” undermining the world’s established financial order.

Yep, that sounds like Facebook.

You couldn’t pay me to participate in this new venture.

Let’s hope their plan to move forward with Libra inspires a new drive to regulate the company.

It’s been a long time coming.

[source:dailybeast]