Welcome to the Era of Fake Currency

The future is upon us, but are we sure we want it brought to us by Facebook? This past summer, the platform heralded the future with the launch of its new cryptocurrency ‘Libra.’ If people hadn’t already learned their lesson from losing millions in the massively unstable Bitcoin, Facebook—the originator of the term “fake news”—is now going to bring you a new, stable, and reliable digital currency. Yeah, right. 

The biggest issue concerning cryptocurrencies is, paradoxically, the very thing that makes them so appealing to investors. A lack of regulation allows buyers and sellers a greater degree of privacy than is normally offered by traditional investment. Moreover, your investments would be mostly unprotected. Remember the friend who had her information leaked on social media? Remember the countless scams such as quizzes and links that attempted to gather your personal information? Well, we are expected to erase it all from our memories. Facebook is not only asking for more personal information from us, but also for our trust and money. 

Do you feel safe? Well, neither did the US House Financial Services Committee last week when they ordered Facebook to pause the development of Libra until “major doubts” could be erased.  Facebook was discouraged by these mounting concerns, especially from potential partners. After Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Fidelity declined the offer to join due to regulatory questions concerning cryptocurrency, a spokeswoman acknowledged the cold feet of investors like Visa, Mastercard, and Paypal, referring to the need for more “healthy dialogue and debate with our fellow founding members.” While Libra has the potential to become a big opportunity, we still have to wait and see whether its plans could overcome past challenges to privacy, stability, and trust. Until then, Mark Zuckerberg and Libra await your investments with nothing else other than open hands.