Libra (LBA) & Facebook

Apart from its ongoing antitrust investigation as put forward by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Facebook is also having a rough time regarding its proposed digital currency, the Libra. A few months ago, Facebook announced its plans to float its own cryptocurrency and also released a whitepaper to the effect.As part of the announcement, a Libra Association was announced, an association made up of several big companies including Uber, Mastercard, Visa, eBay, Spotify and many other...

On Thursday, after Facebook announced its new Threads app, Snap Inc. (SNAP) stock fell up to 7%. Facebook’s latest attempt to clone features already being used by Snapchat is only one of many, which has since pitched both social media giants together in the public eye.Even though Threads is a stand-alone app, it allows users already on Instagram to exchange status updates and media including photos and videos, to specific people who make up their “close friends”, an Instagram feature which...

Although Apple is making an aggressive move in the fintech and global payments industry, the tech giant has no plans to step in the crypto space for now. Apple Inc’s chief executive officer Tim Cook recently said that his company has no plans to launch its own digital currency.During an interview with French financial newspaper Les Echos, Cook said that matters related to currency should remain in the hands of countries and their respective governments. He added:“I really think that a...

Photo: Taboola / TwitterAdvertising company Taboola and its competitor, web advertising platform Outbrain announced they are merging, forming one company. Even though this is a mutual company, it will nevertheless be called Taboola, and Taboola’s founder Adam Singolda will act as its CEO.Taboola is said to pay Outbrain investors $250 million in cash plus a 30% share of the combined companies.The main goal is to widen its customer list that should now have more than 20.000 online properties...

Stenografen dokumentieren eine Rede der Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel im Deutschen Bundestag. Foto: CC 3.0 by Tobias Koch, Wikipedia Facebooks Digitalwährung Libra ist in aller Munde. Doch es gibt auch eine Menge Gegenwind für die private Kryptowährung. Der deutsche Finanzminister Scholz hat seine Kritik an den Plänen von Libra erneuert und deutlich gemacht, dass eine europäische Libra-Alternative kommen muss. Scholz fordert die...

Facebook’s plans to launch a cryptocurrency are an indication that blockchain technology has come of age and is ready for prime time, especially in Japan. According to the chairperson of the Japan Security Token Association, Go Masuda, Libra is blockchain’s second “killer app,” after Bitcoin: “The industry lacked a good use case of blockchain technology. There have been no killer apps since bitcoin … the industry is now entering a new phase of commercial adoption.” With Japan being one of...

According to the Wall Street Journal, Visa and MasterCard are getting cold feet about helping build payment infrastructure for Facebook’s Libra project. The Wall Street Journal said that a number of financial partners were starting to back away from Libra because of regulatory concerns. This comes on the heels of a September 9 meeting in Switzerland in which financial regulators from across the globe questioned members of Libra. It also follows the skepticism expressed by Congress in July,...

Even as the U.S. Congress bites down hard on Facebook and the social media giant’s grand plans of issuing its own digital currency, a recent event has corroborated the general idea that the problem with the Libra might not be the fact that it’s a digital currency itself, but that it’s being issued by Facebook. This is because, two Rep members have revealed concerns about the inevitability of digital currencies in the near future, suggesting that the United States should start getting used to...

Telegram Open Network (TON) announced in its letter to investors that it is close to its planned launch.Mitja Goroshevsky, CTO of TON Labs, a startup building tools for TON developers, said that TON Labs itself “will run and manage its own validation pool.”He confirmed the authenticity of the letter saying that original investors received emails from the Telegram core team and that is expected from them to provide Telegram with their public keys by Oct. 16 using the key generator in order to...

There has been a lot of negativity surrounding the launch of Facebook Libra over the last few months. Global regulators and banking institutions have showered severe criticism over the project. However, despite several kickbacks, the Libra Association is proceeding ahead with its plans of mainnet launch.Recently, the Libra Association has published a new roadmap that highlights 4 major milestones to be attained before the launch of the Libra network. The Calibra team says that the first...