R3 CEO: Facebook’s Announcement of Libra Was ‘Ridiculously Stupid’

CEO of blockchain firm R3 has ridiculed the way Facebook introduced its yet-to-be-released Libra stablecoin.

Skepticism surrounding Facebook’s forthcoming Libra stablecoin continues growing as David Rutter, the CEO of enterprise software firm R3, said that the announcement of Libra this summer was “ridiculously stupid,” Financial News reported on Nov. 18.

“Really naïve”

Rutter delivered comments during a recent company conference in London, admitting that Facebook’s plans to issue their own cryptocurrency made policy makers and financial regulators have sped up the process of examination of blockchain and cryptocurrency applications.

However, Rutter added that Facebook’s ambition to enter the financial systems world — which market participants have been working on for years — was “really naïve.” 

In Rutter’s words: “I think what they did was ridiculously stupid. The way they rolled it out… Yeah, you know it was just so... It was just so in your face. There’s a lack of understanding.” 

Rutter continued: 

“When we saw [Facebook] talking about doing a basket of currencies with weighting, in reality when we want to translate that back to real-world currencies it’s not simple.[...] It’s really naïve.”

Facebook recent achievements in payments

While global regulators continue arguing about Libra’s expediency and look to reach common ground on the issue, the Libra Association is proceeding with the development of the Libra network. The association has reportedly logged over 30 projects and 51,000 transactions on the Libra network during the past two months.

Moreover, the organization is planning to introduce a range of new features in upcoming months, such as the  launch of a new process for completing Contributor License Agreements and establishment of a Technical Steering Committee, which is set to supervise and manage the technical design and development of the Libra network on behalf of association members.

Also, Facebook announced the launch of its new fiat payment system dubbed Facebook Pay. The payment system is designed to facilitate payments across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp.