FB's Libra First Major Effort to Disrupt Financial Services

By Thomas J. Lee, June 18, 2019

Tuesday’s announcement by Facebook (FB) that it is developing Libra, a new crypto currency, could, in hindsight, could come to be seen as an inflection point for crypto currencies, and a real disruptor to fiat money.  

It’s been clear that technology would eventually target financial services for disruption given the sheer opportunity, roughly some $8 trillion.  Libra, a crypto currency project, is supported by 100 major partners, and there are multiple implications, as I note below.

What then is Libra? It’s a new global money similar to Bitcoin, but Libra is intended to be sent instantly, with almost no fees, anywhere in the world.  Also unlike Bitcoin, Libra is aimed to have a stable value, backed up by a basket of international currencies. A Swiss nonprofit will be responsible for the final design and for putting the system in place.

Next year, any company should be able to accept the coin and build wallets that will let people hold and spend it, as with Bitcoin. Facebook intends to offer Libra to almost all the 2.7 billion customers now on Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp services.  Facebook hopes its partners, such as Uber and Spotify, will also take Libra as payment, as they do with PayPal and Venmo today.

Every time someone buys Libra, that money will be deposited into a bank account where it will sit untouched, so that every dollar’s or euro’s worth of Libra will be backed by a dollar or euro in the bank, according to the Libra design documents. This means an infinite number of Libra can be generated, in contrast to Bitcoin, capped at 21 million coins. If you want to turn Libra back into dollars or other traditional currencies, Facebook’s wallet, Calibra, will make the conversion at the going rate, and transfer the money to another bank or online financial account like PayPal.

So here are the key takeaways of Libra for investors, as I see them: