Breaking: Facebook’s Libra onboards former HSBC executive in an attempt to revive the project

• The Libra Association announced the appointment of Ian Jenkins as CFO, Risk Chief of Digital Payments Unit.
• The project continues moving forward despite the opposition by many governments around the world.

Libra, a cryptocurrency backed by Facebook has appointed Ian Jenkins, a former HSBC executive as the CFO of the digital payments system. HSBC is an investment banking company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. The company had more than $56 billion in revenue in 2019 and it's the 6th largest bank in the world currently, and the largest in Europe.

Although the expertise of Ian Jenkins will certainly help Libra, the project continues facing harsh regulatory issues. Back on October 12, we found out about the newest G7 draft which planned to oppose the launch of Libra unless it's fully regulated. The G7 draft states: 

The G7 continues to maintain that no global stablecoin project should begin operation until it adequately addresses relevant legal, regulatory, and oversight requirements through appropriate design and by adhering to applicable standards

Libra intends to become a stablecoin

According to the official whitepaper of Libra, the cryptocurrency aims to be a stablecoin, pegged to several traditional currencies. Libra will operate behind a basket of currencies, like USD, EUR, GBP, and SGD. The stablecoin will always be backed at a 1:1 rate.

Users can have confidence that they will be able to sell any Libra coin at or close to the value of the reserve at any time. This gives the coin intrinsic value on day one and helps protect against the speculative swings of other cryptocurrencies.

The paper also states that the Libra network was designed to become globally accessible while being a low-cost payment option. It does not intend to replace traditional currencies, however, many are concerned with the ability of Libra to interfere with monetary sovereignty. Will we ever see Libra succeed?