Libra vs. Governments: The race towards an inclusive global payment infrastructure
Uta Meier-Hahn
Together with my GIZ colleagues Franz von Weizsäcker and Lars Wannemacher, I wrote this opinion piece about Facebook’s digital curreny Libra.
The race is on: The Libra consortium is developing a global payment infrastructure based on an asset-backed stablecoin, the Libra. The People’s Bank of China rushed to announce its digital version of the yuan, intending to defend sovereignty in response to Libra. Similarly, the German government — as outlined in its German Blockchain Strategy — would like to prevent stablecoins like Libra to compete with national currencies, yet it speaks in favour of an electronic version of the euro. This article argues that financial inclusion can greatly benefit from openness and competition in global payment infrastructures. Read on
Eine deutschsprachige Version des Artikels hat netzpolitik veröffentlicht.