Facebook Libra (LIBRA)

Libra cryptocurrency is a native coin as part of the open-source blockchain protocol, the Libra Blockchain, a consortium spearheaded by Facebook, the social media company. It was earlier dubbed as the FacebookCoin or the GlobalCoin.

The initial plan for Libra is to start off as a permission system called the Libra Association in which the validators are large institutions such as Visa, Mastercard, Paypal, Ebay, Coinbase, Lyft, Uber, and more.

The objective of this project is to transform the digital economy by bringing financial technology and banking services to the global population particularly the unbanked.

The Libra coin at this juncture will be a stable currency, backed by multiple stable assets such as bonds, government-backed securities, and national fiat currencies. It will however not be peg against specific national currency such as USD stablecoins that we are accustomed with. While there is going to be a market rate for Libra, the idea is to not have it be as volatile as bitcoin for everyday transactions.

It will use the proof-of-stake consensus based on the BFT (Byzantine Fault Tolerant) algorithm; in which it will support smart contracts like Ethereum.

The Libra blockchain testnet will be launched at the end of 2019, and the mainnet will be deployed by 2020.