Do we believe Mark Zuckerberg when he says his new platform is geared towards an alternative payment system for the least privileged?
This would include people who can’t get to a bank branch, who don’t have enough to even be able to use an account, or whose country has failed to lay down reliable banking infrastructure.
Facebook’s new crypto, LibraCoin, specifically targets this population – or so they say in their whitepaper. They hope their coin will introduce the unbanked masses to the wonders of modern banking, such as microtransactions and paying with your smartphone.
This conveniently glosses over the fact that of the 1.7 billion unbanked people in the world, the most commonly cited reason for not having a bank account is that they just don’t have enough money.
So the people LibraCoin will actually be targeting are, first of all, those with smartphones. Fair enough. Mobile phone usage and subsequent mobile banking usage has positively skyrocketed throughout Africa, especially in places like Kenya and Nigeria. But these people are mostly already banked.
That leaves places with overbearing governments like North Korea, semi-functioning states like Afghanistan and places that just can’t build enough accessible branches like Nepal or India. Will opening an account with the Honourable Bank of Facebook & Co. – sorry, LibraCoin – be attractive to people in these regions?
Possibly. Women face poor financial empowerment in places where setting up an account basically requires a male relative’s permission. Being able to easily set up a wallet on your smartphone will help women bypass watchful husbands.
In Venezuela, where one hasn’t always had to buy milk with five swipes of a debit card due to transaction limits of many million bolivars being too low, LibraCoin offers an extremely stable alternative to the national currency.
Many western tech companies aren't really allowed to enter China
But a huge chunk of the unbanked population live in China where LibraCoin will undoubtedly be banned, despite Facebook’s efforts to dispel the idea of them being in control through the Libra Association, a cartel of Big Western Tech Companies that are all banned in China anyway.
So who is LibraCoin really targeting?
Because Mark Zuckerberg didn’t build a brand new crypto platform just to bring banking to poor Afghan farmers and battered Indian wives.
The answer is obviously us, the rest of the world, who will be using our shiny new Calibra wallets to buy coffee in Starbucks or more pertinently, spend money on brands advertised by our favourite social influencers.
Incoming Zuck, he's after your bucks
We can even then share the payment on Instagram through Calibra’s handy app integration!
Oh yes – Zuck has big plans for us indeed.