Will Libra be liberating?

Facebook announced that it is going to launch a new cryptocurrency called Libra. "The Libra currency, as described in this white paper, will not be run by Facebook, but rather by a non profit association supported by a range of companies and associations. But Facebook does have a plan to profit from it with a new subsidiary, Calibra, which is building a digital wallet of the same name for storing and exchanging the currency," wrote J Boorstin. "There's 1.7 billion people around the world that are unbanked, the same number are underserved by financial services," said leader of Facebook's Calibra division David Marcus. So Facebook is trying to help the poor. Like the billionaires wanting to pay more taxes to reduce inequality. Politicians should be thrilled, but "the US House Committee on Financial Services is calling on Facebook to halt its plan". "It appears that these products may lend themselves to an entirely new global financial system that is based out of Switzerland and intended to rival US monetary policy and the dollar," the committee wrote in a letter. "Already, the Libra Association, a Geneva-based not-for-profit group that will operate the digital currency, counts companies such as Uber, eBay, Lyft, Mastercard and PayPal among its founding members. Libra could, therefore, become the dominant global currency -- but one run by a corporation, not a central bank," agreed Prof K Basu. Unlike Bitcoin, Libra will be linked to official currencies either through the user's bank account or through exchange with national currencies, wrote N Rajadhyaksha. But that will mean that central banks will not be able to control money supply. "Monetary systems are not just about economics. They are central to the power of modern nation states, perhaps as much as an army is." Exactly. "What if Facebook's crypto, backed by fiat-currency assets and offering stable value, starts our by paying for coffee but over time becomes people's preferred store of wealth? What will it mean for monetary sovereignty?" asked A Mukherjee. China yearns to make the renminbi a reserve currency like the dollar and maybe India and Indonesia will want to do the same. Their central banks could create their own cryptocurrencies and pay interest on them. "Other central banks may join the battle for continued relevance," creating a new type of currency war. The Indian government likes to ban anything it doesn't like and so is proposing to jail anyone who deals in cryptocurrencies. Hence, the government wants a cashless nation, with people using only digital transactions so that  it can monitor every citizen for total control. How will it stop Libra? Will it ban Facebook in India and risk a backlash from the people? The more power politicians collect, the more freedom people demand. Maybe Libra will liberate people.