Blockchain researchers at online brokerage eToro have argued that Facebook should look to support third-party stablecoins, not Libra. According to a Nov. 28 report from Finextra, eToro’s blockchain research unit eToroX Labs believes that while Facebook’s crypto project offers a “trailblazing opportunity” to disrupt financial services worldwide, the social media giant needs to change its strategy to assure success. Facebook should focus on wallet infrastructure Distrust and forceful opposition have plagued Facebook’s project since its inception — prompting American politicians to recast Libra derisively as “ZuckBucks.” Yet eToroX Labs’ researchers argue that there is still something to fight for in …

Yeo Min-soo, the CEO of South Korean internet giant Kakao, said that his firm’s Klaytn blockchain is similar to Facebook’s Libra except it is way ahead in its development. According to the Korea Herald on Nov. 28, Min-soo lauded Klatyn’s development during the first Klaytn Governance Council Summit held in Seoul: “Facebook’s Libra launched last month with aims to recruit 100 partners. Libra is taking a similar approach to ours, but it has yet to experience the milestones we have crossed. [...] Next year, Klaytn will become Asia’s biggest blockchain consortium.” The Klaytn platform, which is developed by Kakao’s blockchain …

In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph, Blockstream CEO Adam Back stated that for him, nothing is above Bitcoin, not even stablecoins or other coins issued by central banks. Adam Back invented the hashcash proof of work system, and was one of the first people to work with Bitcoin (BTC). In addition, he was present this year at the G20 meetings in Japan, where he spoke about the positive uses of blockchain. At G20, sitting next to the president of the Dutch central bank, Back said he believed the blockchain would be another initiative for an open network, and said financial …

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 …

American lawmakers have reportedly introduced a bill aiming to put Facebook’s Libra under the jurisdiction of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Two Texas representatives, Sylvia Garcia and Lance Gooden, have proposed legislation that would put even more regulatory scrutiny on Facebook’s not-yet-launched Libra stablecoin and related projects, CNBC reports Nov. 21. The bipartisan team of the House Financial Services Committee introduced the bill today, speaking at a committee hearing on the role of big data in financial services. Libra is “clearly” a security under existing law, lawmaker claims In the new bill called the “Managed Stablecoins are Securities Act …

A peculiar phenomenon is occurring within the economic sector. In fact, it’s been transpiring over the past few decades. After the rise of the internet and the development of effective communications, the financial industry underwent a technical reconstruction. Those formerly disbarred due to a lack of capital found refuge in this revolution. Internet brokers and e-commerce start-ups with little more than a “.com” suffix proliferated. Some even threatened to subvert entrenched financial institutions. Among those attempting a banking coup was Confinity — now Paypal — one of the first online payment processors. Unbeknownst to most, financial disruption was the firm’s …

The Libra Association, the entity behind Facebook’s forthcoming eponymous stablecoin, has logged over 30 projects and 51,000 transactions on the Libra network during the past two months. Despite global regulators’ controversial stance towards Libra and the loss of a one-fourth of its founding partners, the Libra Association continues to develop the stablecoin’s network and has plans to introduce a range of new features in the upcoming months, which it set forth in a press release published on Nov. 15. Ten wallets, 11 blockchain explorers, one integrated development environment, one application programming interface and 11 clients have taken part in the …

New York-based blockchain startup Bison Trails has raised $25.5 million in a new funding round led by major venture capital firm Blockchain Capital. One of the 21 founding members of the Libra Association, Bison Trails is providing blockchain infrastructure solutions for more than 20 blockchain protocols to date, the firm said in an announcement on Nov. 19. The new Series A financing round featured a number of major industry investors including venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, American crypto exchange and wallet service Coinbase, Ethereum blockchain firm ConsenSys and crypto merchant bank Galaxy Digital. Other new investors included Collaborative Fund, A …

As the Libra stablecoin project continues to face a hostile audience of regulators, Facebook launches a new fiat payment system called Facebook Pay. Empower people everywhere to buy and sell things online On Nov. 12, the social media giant announced that it is introducing Facebook Pay, a payment system that is designed to facilitate payments across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Deborah Liu, VP, marketplace & commerce at Facebook said: “People already use payments across our apps to shop, donate to causes and send money to each other. Facebook Pay will make these transactions easier while continuing to ensure your …

The past week has marked a number of crypto- and blockchain-related developments in the German-speaking world. Malta Enterprise partnered with Deutsche Telekom's IT service subsidiary to offer its blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) marketplace, French IT company Atos and Austrian startup Smart Digital proposed industrial plant inspections using blockchain, and the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) launched a market survey on crypto assets derivatives. Below is the past week of crypto and blockchain news in review, as originally reported by Cointelegraph auf Deutsch. BaFin launches a market survey into crypto derivatives BaFin’s survey contains 19 questions in five subject blocks and is …

The former head of People’s Bank of China (PBoC), Zhou Xiaochuan has argued that the Libra stablecoin would be more readily trusted if it were in the hands of an organization like the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Zhou is the longest-serving governor of China’s central bank to date, having held the role between 2002 and 2018. During his tenure, China soared to become one of the world’s leading economies. Zhou made his comments during a speech delivered in Beijing as part of the 10th Caixin Summit on Nov. 8, according to a tweet from Dovey Wan, founding partner of blockchain …

A senior United States federal official has argued that Facebook’s Libra highlights the need for the Federal Reserve (Fed) to act urgently and launch its own real-time payments system. In a letter addressed to the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors on Nov. 7, Rohit Chopra — a commissioner at the United States Federal Trade Commission — expressed his support of the central bank’s proposal to launch a new, round-the-clock real-time payments system dubbed “FedNow Service.” A potential “shadow global central bank” In his letter, Commissioner Chopra argued that the central bank must act swiftly to prevent new threats to its …