It Would Be a Mistake To Trust Facebook’s Native Cryptocurrency

By Sumedha Bose

Facebook, one of the giant social media platforms out there, has for long exercised control over our data. In its bid to monopolize the entire market, Facebook has used our data against us in multiple cases. Selling it to third party users to run targeted ads, interfering with political campaigns and what not.

The Wall Street Journal thus cautions us regarding the secret stablecoin project of Facebook, which is called Project Libra. What the company wishes to do, is to build a network of online merchants and financial institutions to support this new cryptocurrency that they are developing.

To that end, Zuckerberg is seeking $1 billion in funding, for Project Libra, from heavyweights like Visa and Mastercard to get that cash. Having started a year ago, the project has catapaulted into something much bigger than what it was originally designed to serve as, a simple tool to allow people to transfer money between WhatsApp users.

The new cryptocurrency, if and when released, will reach the platform’s nearly 1.6 billion daily active users.

Facebook cryptocurrency daily users potential

Source: Wall Street Journal

However, the question that we are asking is, can Facebook be trusted? The answer is, no. Let’s look at the facts here. Last year, Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal received a lot of international limelight. Facebook was accused of selling the personal data of 87 million users to Cambridge Analytica without the users’ consent, back in 2014. This was a gross violation of the social media company’s privacy policies.

If they release the cryptocurrency, you would need to give Facebook your financial data as well, which at this point would not be in your best interest, considering that there is precedence regarding misuse of data. Also, back in March, Facebook disclosed that it had been storing account passwords of hundreds of millions users in a readable, plaintext format since 2012.

This again is a major concern for users, who plan to trust Facebook with their data. If you trust the company with any amount of money, there is a good chance that they are going to fuddle up your finances.

Also, the anonymity thatis guaranteed in the usage of Bitcoin, might be a myth in case of Facebook’s crypto. Which is why at the moment, it does not seem prudent to trust Facebook with our data.

Sumedha Bose

Sumedha uses words as her crutch to get by in life. She takes a keen interest in debating, dancing and destroying the patriarchy in her free time.

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