France and Germany will block Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency

Bad news for Facebook and its projects, France and Germany agreed to block Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency, the French finance ministry said.

France and Germany governments announced that they will block Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency, the news was reported by French finance ministry Bruno Le Maire.

“We believe that no private entity can claim monetary power, which is inherent to the sovereignty of nations”. reads a joint statement issued by the two governments,

“I want to be absolutely clear: in these conditions, we cannot authorise the development of Libra on European soil.” he said at a conference in Paris on virtual currencies.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire explained last week the Facebook should not be allowed to operate the Libra cryptocurrency in Europe because it threatens the monetary sovereignty and financial systems of the states.

Facebook announced in June that it plans to launch Libra in 2020, to make it reliable the social network giant wants to use traditional currency to back Libra. 

The non-profit Libra Association include major firms such as PayPal, Visa, Stripe, Mastercard, eBay, and Uber. 

“Unlike other cryptocurrencies, which are not controlled by a central authority, Libra will not be decentralised, but will be entrusted to a Swiss-based association of major technology and financial services companies. Besides Facebook, backers of Libra include the payment companies Visa, MasterCard and PayPal, and the ride-hailing apps Lyft and Uber.” reported The Guardian.

Authorities also fear possible abuses of the Libra cryptocurrency, including money laundering, and how Facebook would prevent them.

[adrotate banner=”9″]

[adrotate banner=”12″]

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – Facebook, cryptocurrency)

[adrotate banner=”5″]

[adrotate banner=”13″]