Recently, Live Bitcoin News has reported on all the companies, individuals and banks that are allegedly terrified of Libra or have no interest in working with it.
Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad Libra?
Among these individuals was the governor of Australia’s central bank Philip Lowe, who said that it would likely be several years before Facebook Coin even attracts a substantial following. He’s also not convinced that Libra has any place in Australia giving the country already offers what he calls a superior digital payments system to its residents.
However, others are rather excited by the prospects of the cryptocurrency and are looking forward to working with the company and paving the way towards Facebook’s overtaking of the digital finance arena. One of these “excited entities” is the city of Geneva, Switzerland, which as Live Bitcoin News reported a few weeks ago, will serve as the new headquarters for the cryptocurrency.
Geneva will ultimately govern the Libra payment system and manage its financial reserves. Switzerland has long been a friend of both crypto and blockchain enterprises given its low-tax status on all cryptocurrency transactions and its region of Zug, which is affectionately known as “Crypto Valley” thanks to its hosting of several digital asset and blockchain startups.
Sven Korschinowski, a partner at KPMG, recently commented:
Switzerland’s regulation is much lighter than in other European countries when it comes to cryptocurrencies. It made sense for Libra to come to Switzerland.
At press time, Libra is undergoing a series of investigations by Switzerland’s financial regulator FINMA. The country has warned against digital coin scams and initial coin offerings (ICOs) in the past, and the organization is eager to ensure Libra will not pose any significant threats to its investors or users.
John Hucker, president of the Swiss Finance & Technology Association, comments:
FINMA deserves a lot of credit for being very pragmatic and patient in the way they have been approaching the subject.
Libra isn’t likely to encounter several of the issues often associated with mainstream forms of crypto like bitcoin and Ethereum given its status as a stable currency, which means it will be tied to the U.S. dollar and therefore less prone to volatility and price swings.
Switzerland Could Be the Perfect Place
Libra spokesman Dante Dispante comments:
Our goal is to manage Libra, the technology and the digital currency very much like a public good, so where better than Switzerland to make this kind of global organization and project?
Right now, Libra is renting office space on the Rhone River that is shared by several other finance and banking conglomerates including PayPal Holdings Inc. and Crypto Finance AG. Ironically, Facebook’s blockchain head and the former executive of PayPal David Marcus who’s running the Libra project grew up in Geneva and briefly attended university there before becoming a technology entrepreneur.
