Facebook has been under a barrage of scrutiny since announcing its plans to develop a digital currency of its own to augment the virtual market place.
David Marcus, head of development for Libra and the Calibra digital wallet project at Facebook, was grilled by lawmakers in court sessions before both the U.S. Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee earlier this month.
Many Watchdog coalitions and Washington politicians have called for a moratorium on development of Libra, and some have even demanded an outright cease and desist of the project.
With the flood of outside pressure and widespread backlash.. it seems even Facebook might be second guessing the reality of seeing the coin adopted for public use.
According to a report from CNBC, Zuckerberg and co. are warning investors that "Libra digital currency may never see the light of day." src
In it's latest quarterly report, Facebook has reminded investors that while it still aims to launch Libra and Calibra by 2020, there are many factors that may delay or inhibit that goal, and therefore Facebook cannot guarantee a set release date.
In the risk factors section of the report, Facebook said:
"Libra has drawn significant scrutiny from governments and regulators in multiple jurisdictions and we expect that scrutiny to continue. In addition, market acceptance of such currency is subject to significant uncertainty. As such, there can be no assurance that Libra or our associated products and services will be made available in a timely manner, or at all. We do not have significant prior experience with digital currency or blockchain technology, which may adversely affect our ability to successfully develop and market these products and services." src
A spokeswoman from Facebook responded to CNBC's report by clarifying that Facebook realizes the road to developing Libra will be 'long and hard' and that is exactly the reason they have chosen to share their plans public. They hope to work openly and honestly with regulators and lawmakers alike to help shape an acceptable path forward.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg reiterated this stance with analysts, stating:
"A few years ago, the company would have probably just showed up and tried to release a product on our own. Now the approach on all of these fronts is to outline the ideas and the values that we think an eventual service should have, leave open a period of however long it takes to address regulators and different experts and constituents’ questions about this and then figure out what the best way to move forward is.” src
It is easy to claim clairvoyance in retrospect, but if openness and honesty is FBs true intentions, or just the latest yarn spooled out by spin doctors, remains to be seen. I think it's still too early to tell, but also still too close to major breaches of trust and privacy issues such as Cambridge Analytica to allow in a wolf donning sheep's clothing.