Abstract
The advent of the Bitcoin blockchain as a peer-to-peer, open, and decentralized financial system has empowered millions of people globally to make transactions without any trusted third parties. This realization leads to the birth of more than 2300 cryptocurrencies in the last decade. Despite this evolvement, the Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are facing many challenges right now. Facebook’s Libra is a new kind of cryptocurrency built on the foundation of blockchain technology conceived by Libra Association - twenty-eight high-profile governing members that will work together to create a more inclusive financial system using consortium blockchain technology. The goal of the Libra is to serve as a solid foundation for a highly scalable, frictionless, and traceable global financial systems with extremely high transactions rate. However, the proposed Libra cryptocurrency has yet to face many issues. In this paper, we critically analyzed the status of the Libra, its underlying concept, and the challenges faced by it once launched as a global decentralized financial system. Currently, the proposed Libra is very ambiguous with uncertain goals and intentions. In particular, we explored the placement technology of Libra, which is not very much well define in comparison with Bitcoin and other public blockchains which are fully decentralized, transparent, borderless and fully open for transparency. Also, we explore the security and privacy features of Libra concerning around three-billion user base of Facebook social media ecosystem (i.e., Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook).
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ali, S., Wang, G., Bhuiyan, M.Z.A., Jiang, H.: Secure data provenance in cloud-centric internet of things via blockchain smart contracts. In: 2018 IEEE SmartWorld, Ubiquitous Intelligence Computing, Advanced Trusted Computing, Scalable Computing Communications, Cloud Big Data Computing, Internet of People and Smart City Innovation (SmartWorld/SCALCOM/UIC/ATC/CBDCom/IOP/SCI), Guangzhou, China, pp. 991–998, October 2018. https://doi.org/10.1109/SmartWorld.2018.00175
Ali, S., Wang, G., White, B., Cottrell, R.L.: A blockchain-based decentralized data storage and access framework for PingER. In: 2018 17th IEEE International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications/12th IEEE International Conference on Big Data Science and Engineering (TrustCom/BigDataSE), Guangzhou, China, pp. 1303–1308, August 2018. https://doi.org/10.1109/TrustCom/BigDataSE.2018.00179
L’Association: Libra Testnet (2019). https://libra.org/en-US/white-paper/#the-libra-blockchain. Accessed August 2019
L’Association: Libra white paper (2019). https://libra.org/en-US/white-paper/
Baraniuk, C.: Libra: Could Facebookś new currency be stopped in its tracks? (2019). https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49090753. Accessed August 2019
Bartz, D.: U.S. lawmakers take jabs at Amazon, big tech in antitrust hearing (2019). https://www.reuters.com/article/us-congress-tech-antitrust/u-s-lawmakers-take-jabs-at-amazon-big-tech-in-antitrust-hearing-idUSKCN1UB108. Accessed August 2019
Castillo, M.: Facebook Libra app development already exploding despite lawmakers concerns (2019). https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeldelcastillo/2019/07/18/facebook-libra-app-development-already-exploding-despite-lawmakers-concerns/#4c587e32776c. Accessed August 2019
Chen, X., et al.: Characteristics of bitcoin transactions on cryptomarkets. In: Wang, G., Feng, J., Bhuiyan, M.Z.A., Lu, R. (eds.) SpaCCS 2019. LNCS, vol. 11611, pp. 261–276. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24907-6_20
Crypto Confidential: Coinmarketcapś fake data; problem Facebookś Libra scams (2019). https://www.forbes.com/sites/cryptoconfidential/2019/07/27/coinmarketcaps-fake-data-problem-facebooks-libra-scams/#7ed7a1bb1e9e. Accessed August 2019
Cottis, P.: Facebook coin good news or bad news ? (2019). https://medium.com/swlh/facebook-coin-good-news-or-bad-news-6137745a591e. Accessed August 2019
Dinh, T.T.A., Liu, R., Zhang, M., Chen, G., Ooi, B.C., Wang, J.: Untangling blockchain: a data processing view of blockchain systems. IEEE Trans. Knowl. Data Eng. 30(7), 1366–1385 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1109/TKDE.2017.2781227
Dwyer, G.P.: The economics of bitcoin and similar private digital currencies. J. Financ. Stab. 17, 81–91 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfs.2014.11.006
Fanusie, Y.: Will crypto rogues threaten the geopolitical order? (2019). https://www.forbes.com/sites/yayafanusie/2019/07/23/will-crypto-rogues-threaten-the-geopolitical-order/#6ae9f4354155. Accessed August 2019
Fotiou, N., Siris, V.A., Polyzos, G.C.: Interacting with the internet of things using smart contracts and blockchain technologies. In: Wang, G., Chen, J., Yang, L.T. (eds.) SpaCCS 2018. LNCS, vol. 11342, pp. 443–452. Springer, Cham (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05345-1_38
Harper, J.: Facebookś libra puts unregulated cryptocurrencies into focus (2019). https://www.dw.com/en/facebooks-libra-puts-unregulated-cryptocurrencies-into-focus/a-49647123. Accessed August 2019
Hussain, Z.: Facebookś Libra is not a real cryptocurrency (2019). https://medium.com/swlh/facebooks-libra-is-not-a-real-cryptocurrency-a622b8f3567b. Accessed August 2019
Khalid, A.: Facebookś Libra in regulatory chains - decentralize or control for acceptance (2019). https://blockpublisher.com/facebooks-libra-in-regulatory-chains-decentralize-or-control-for-acceptance/. Accessed August 2019
Kus Khalilov, M.C., Levi, A.: A survey on anonymity and privacy in bitcoin-like digital cash systems. IEEE Commun. Surv. Tutor. 20(3), 2543–2585 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1109/COMST.2018.2818623
Lee, T.B.: Thereś a big problem with Facebookś Libra cryptocurrency (2019). https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/07/facebooks-half-baked-cryptocurrency-libra-explained/. Accessed August 2019
Mathieu, B., Avery, C., Alberto, S.: State machine replication in the Libra blockchain, pp. 1–44, August 2019. https://developers.libra.org/docs/state-machine-replication-paper
Mauldin, J.: Libra is nothing more than a nice idea (2019). https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnmauldin/2019/08/05/libra-is-nothing-more-than-a-nice-idea/#467e8cf95a9a. Accessed August 2019
Maurer, B., Ticsher, D.: Facebookś Libra itś not the crypto thatś the issue, itś the organisation behind it (2019). https://theconversation.com/facebooks-libra-its-not-the-crypto-thats-the-issue-its-the-organisation-behind-it-121223. Accessed August 2019
Nakamoto, S., et al.: Bitcoin: a peer-to-peer electronic cash system (2008)
Paul, K.: Breathtaking arrogance: senators grill Facebook in combative hearing over Libra currency (2019). https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jul/15/big-tech-behemoths-face-grilling-from-us-lawmakers-as-hearings-kick-off. Accessed August 2019
Pierro, M.D.: What is the blockchain? Comput. Sci. Eng. 19(5), 92–95 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1109/MCSE.2017.3421554
Ravi, R.D.: Analyst: Walmartś cryptocurrency may create less political cryptocurrency prices friction than Facebook Libra a cryptocurrency similar to rechargeable gift cards. https://all-stocks.net/analyst-walmarts-cryptocurrency-may-create-less-political-friction-than-facebook-libra/. Accessed August 2019
Sam, B., Evan, C., Runtian, Z.: Move: a language with programmable resources, pp. 1–26, July 2019. https://developers.libra.org/docs/move-paper
Shawdagor, J.: Top-6 issues experts/entities have with Libra (2019). https://cointelegraph.com/news/top-6-issues-experts-entities-have-with-libra. Accessed August 2019
Shehar, B., Christian, C., Nils, W.: Moving toward permissionless consensus, pp. 1–4, August 2019. https://libra.org/en-US/permissionless-blockchain
Sontakke, M.: Walmart coin: A bigger deal than FBś Libra and Bitcoin? (2019). https://marketrealist.com/2019/08/walmart-coin-bigger-than-libra/. Accessed August 2019
Taskinsoy, J.: Facebook’s project Libra: Will Libra sputter out or spur central banks to introduce their own unique cryptocurrency projects? Available at SSRN 3423453 (2019). https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3423453
Taskinsoy, J.: This time is different: Facebookś Libra can improve both financial inclusion and global financial stability as a viable alternative currency to the U.S. Dollar. Available at SSRN 3434493 (2019). https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3434493
Telford, T.: Why governments around the world are afraid of Libra, Facebookś cryptocurrency (2019). https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/07/12/why-governments-around-world-are-afraid-libra-facebooks-cryptocurrency/?noredirect=on. Accessed August 2019
Tschorsch, F., Scheuermann, B.: Bitcoin and beyond: a technical survey on decentralized digital currencies. IEEE Commun. Surv. Tutor. 18(3), 2084–2123 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1109/COMST.2016.2535718
Underwood, S.: Blockchain beyond bitcoin. Commun. ACM 59(11), 15–17 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1145/2994581
Vukolić, M.: Rethinking permissioned blockchains. In: Proceedings of the ACM Workshop on Blockchain, Cryptocurrencies and Contracts, BCC 2017, pp. 3–7. ACM, New York (2017). https://doi.org/10.1145/3055518.3055526
Yang, R., Yu, F.R., Si, P., Yang, Z., Zhang, Y.: Integrated blockchain and edge computing systems: a survey, some research issues and challenges. IEEE Commun. Surv. Tutor. 21(2), 1508–1532 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1109/COMST.2019.2894727
Yin, M., Malkhi, D., Reiter, M.K., Gueta, G.G., Abraham, I.: HotStuff: BFT consensus with linearity and responsiveness. In: Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing, PODC 2019, pp. 347–356. ACM, New York (2019). https://doi.org/10.1145/3293611.3331591
Zachary, A., Ramnik, A., Runtian, Z.: The Libra Blockchain, July 2019. https://developers.libra.org/docs/the-libra-blockchain-paper
Ølnes, S., Ubacht, J., Janssen, M.: Blockchain in government: benefits and implications of distributed ledger technology for information sharing. Gov. Inf. Q. 34(3), 355–364 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2017.09.007. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0740624X17303155
Acknowledgments
This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 61632009, in part by the Guangdong Provincial Natural Science Foundation under Grant 2017A030308006, and in part by the High-Level Talents Program of Higher Education in Guangdong Province under Grant 2016ZJ01.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this paper
Cite this paper
Ali, S., Wang, G., White, B., Fatima, K. (2019). Libra Critique Towards Global Decentralized Financial System. In: Wang, G., El Saddik, A., Lai, X., Martinez Perez, G., Choo, KK. (eds) Smart City and Informatization. iSCI 2019. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1122. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1301-5_52
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1301-5_52
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-15-1300-8
Online ISBN: 978-981-15-1301-5
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)