Facebook’s digital currency Libra will not become a reality until at least 2023, the CEO of one of its would-be competitors says.
Garlinghouse: I’d Bet Libra Fails To Launch In 3 Years
In an interview with Fortune’s Balancing the Ledger on October 7, Ripple chief Brad Garlinghouse became the latest voice to go public with doubts about Libra.
According to him, regulatory issues will keep Facebook from launching its currency for the time being.
“No,” he answered when asked if he was bullish about Facebook’s ability to issue Libra as it planned in the whitepaper earlier this year.
“Do I think they have the technical competency to do that? Sure; I think the regulatory headwinds they’re facing… are substantial.”
Facebook has pledged to address wide-ranging concerns from governments and still release Libra as planned. For Garlinghouse, however, that eventuality appears highly unlikely to happen – at least yet.
Considering a potential timeframe, he suggested taking bets on blockchain prediction service Augur.
“If I were a betting man, I would take an Augur bet… I think there’s a time-based element on Augur as well, so I’ll say… the end of 2022, I think Libra will not have launched,” he decided.
Mounting Misgivings Over Libra
As Bitcoinist reported, Facebook executives themselves are much more confident. Releasing a roadmap last week, developers said progress was already happening on Libra’s transition from testnet to mainnet.
That was just before PayPal, one of the network’s prospective $10 million node operators, said it was pulling out due to its own worries about regulatory uncertainty.
“PayPal has made the decision to forgo further participation in the Libra association at this time,” the company said in a widely-quoted statement.
“…We remain supportive of Libra’s aspirations and look forward to continued dialogue on ways to work together in the future.”
Ripple Tackles Securities And XRP Relationship
Garlinghouse meanwhile made use of the interview to touch on other contentious issues. Among those were Ripple’s relationship with the XRP cryptocurrency.
Long the subject of conjecture, various company representatives had given conflicting accounts of just how much control it has over the token.
As Bitcoinist noted, 2019 has seen Ripple members sell off more of their huge holdings than any other period since XRP’s creation.
At the same time, one Ripple investor has tried to squeeze accountability out of Garlinghouse’s firm, alleging in a lawsuit it sold XRP as an unregistered security.
“Certainly we are an interested party in the success of the XRP ledger, for sure—we own a lot of XRP,” he summarized about the complete situation.
“But it’s a little bit like saying, Exxon owns a lot of oil. That doesn’t make oil a security.”
What do you think about Ripple’s opinion on Libra and XRP? Let us know in the comments below!
Images via theaustralian
