By: Mustafa Alrawi
June 19, 2019
There was no mention of Bitcoin in Facebook’s announcement about Libra, the company’s forthcoming digital currency, or the white paper explaining how it will work. However, it was cited in the accompanying technical documents as both a reference point and an example of what Libra will not be.
Nevertheless, a debt is owed to Bitcoin’s enigmatic creator Satoshi Nakamoto, whoever he, she or they may be. The Bitcoin concept was built on the progress of digital payments. These systems date all the way back to the 1980s, but the strides made in the past decade have been truly groundbreaking. It will be interesting to see if Libra will be too.
Amid all the hype, Bitcoin has proven that there is a growing appetite for a financial system devoid of middlemen and monolithic institutions. It has also helped, via the asset bubble created around it in 2017, to heighten awareness of digital currencies and of what they can do for us. Accordingly, they are now being taken seriously by banks, governments and investors.
The World Economic Forum estimates that more than 40 central banks are experimenting with blockchain technology, including digital currencies.