Libra Association Vice Chairman: The world needs us, Bitcoin is not the panacea for payment methods

Libra Association Vice Chairman Dante Disparte stated on Tuesday of this week: "Bitcoin has become an asset class, and that has been demonstrated by the mathematical scarcity that underpins an astonishing asset. But it is not a means of payment."

Disparte recently attended the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas and spoke at the digital currency forum, sharing his views with electronics enthusiasts and early technology adopters. He stated:

The foundation of economic liquidity is the payment channel. So far, cryptocurrencies have not played a role in payments. That's why I am interested in building Libra with Facebook.

Disparte believes that Libra is trying to solve a complex problem, including how to drive mass adoption, eliminate potential service friction, and reduce the high costs of payments for the public.

Akin Sawyerr, the Strategy Lead at Decred focusing on blockchain governance issues, questioned the centralization of Libra at the conference. He believes that a decentralized system would outperform a for-profit entity, and the only way to achieve the goal is to empower individuals with basic sovereignty. He stated:

Sovereignty means whether a person can control their money. In Bitcoin terms, as long as you have the private key, no one can take away your bitcoins. It will be difficult to implement a permissioned system like Libra, run by dozens of large institutions.

In response, Disparte pointed out,

It is not fair to judge whether Libra is a true cryptocurrency until those permissionless cryptocurrency projects really launch payment systems for developing countries and achieve large-scale adoption.

Disparte emphasized that this is not a binary situation nor a zero-sum world.

According to a report, the initial partners of the Libra project (including PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, etc.) have successively withdrawn from the project since October last year, and the planned launch in June 2020 is still under scrutiny due to regulatory pressures from various governments.

Related Reading

• Facebook Exec: Libra Launch May Take Decades, But It's 'Absolutely Worth It'
• SAGA, a blockchain company supported by a Nobel laureate, issues a global stablecoin similar to Libra

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