Facebook, Libra, and the Long Game (Ben Thompson)

Ben Thompson, Stratechery:

Here is the important thing to understand about the Libra Association: while its members — who again, are the validators — do control the Libra protocol, Facebook does not control the validators. Which, by extension, means that Facebook will not control Libra.

It’s always good to control ones biases, but it doesn’t come easy for me when dealing with Facebook. Ben makes the case that since Libra is not a Facebook Coin”, but rather a Facebook initiative, the tradeoffs between trust and efficiency just may enable it to succeed.

Certainly Facebook’s audacity and ambition should not be underestimated, and the company’s network is the biggest reason to believe Libra will work; Facebook’s brand is the biggest reason to believe it will not.

But there’s that.