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Samson Mow, chief strategy officer at Blockstream, recently tweeted that Facebook should have saved itself the trouble of developing Libra and just used Bitcoin instead.
In a series of tweets, Mow notes – after watching the entire Senate Banking Committee hearings on Libra – that “Libra is so screwed.” Mow explains that the impression he got from the hearings is that Facebook’s David Marcus has no idea what he’s building. Mow then added:
The crux of the issue is that Marcus has no idea what he is building, while also conflating FOSS with open permissionless systems. @Libra_ can't be everything for everyone, and it can't be both open and closed at the same time.
— Samson Mow (@Excellion) July 17, 2019
Mow goes on quoting Marcus saying that since the Libra network is open-sourced, it now belongs to the community. Additionally, Marcus’ team “will relinquish control over both the codebase and network.” However, the Blockstream CSO makes a troubling point:
If this statement is really true, then a dev team will be able to remove the KYC/AML components in a non-Calibra wallet, and still be able to interact freely with the network aside from on and off ramps.
— Samson Mow (@Excellion) July 17, 2019
If Mow is correct and that statement is true, it would contradict the promise: “wallets will enforce the sanctions that are led by our national security apparatus and treasury.”
As such, the only way Libra will be able to ensure compliance is for Facebook to be in complete control. “You can’t have only Calibra wallets requiring authenticated government ID’s but not others,” Mow notes.
Libra representatives then pointed out that they will ensure people will be able to do anything with their stablecoin so long “as they have a legitimate use of the product.”
He says, however, that this presents an entirely new problem because anytime you say ”legitimate use,” Libra could decide at any time that “x is not a legitimate use” and your money is frozen. Mow concluded, saying:
It's good though that Marcus said "we will take the time to get this right." Once Libra is compliant with every jurisdiction, it will just be a more complex PayPal governed by an association.
— Samson Mow (@Excellion) July 17, 2019
Should've just used #Bitcoin.