The other side of the Coin: Risks of the Libra Blockchain

Louis Abraham () and Domenique Guégan ()
Additional contact information
Louis Abraham: Ecole polytechnique
Domenique Guégan: University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne; Ca' Foscari University of Venice

No 2019: 30, Working Papers from Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari"

Abstract: Libra was presented as a cryptocurrency on June 18, 2019 by Facebook. On the same day, Facebook announced plans for Calibra, a subsidiary in charge of the development of an electronic wallet and financial services. In view of the primary risk of sovereignty posed by the creation of Libra, the Central Banks quickly took very clear positions against the project and adressed a lot of questions to the responsible of the project focusing on regulation aspects and national sovereignty. The purpose of this paper is to provide a holistic analysis of the project to encompass several aspects of its implementation and the issues it raises. We address a set of questions that are part of the cryptocurrency environment and blockchain technology that supports the Libra project. We identify the main risks considering at the same time: political risks, financial risks, economical risks, technological risks and ethics focusing on the governance of the project based on two levels: one for the Association and the other for the Libra Blockchain. We emphazise the difficulty to regulate such a project as soon as it will depend on several countries whose legislations are very different. The future of this kind of project is discussed through the emergence of the Central Bank Digital Currencies.

Keywords: Blockchain Protocol; Central Bank Digital Currency; Cryptocurrency; Governance; Libra; Regulation; Risk (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C88 E5 G28 K2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2019
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cba and nep-pay
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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