Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency: A threat to national economies? | USA

With the likes of Amazon, Google’s parent company Alphabet and Facebook becoming the world’s most valuable listed companies, Big Data is quickly becoming the world’s most important commodity. Meanwhile, regulators are scrambling to keep up with the changing environment.

The newest tech initiative – and one causing some concern – is Facebook’s plan to introduce a new digital currency, Libra.

A cryptocurrency used by the social network’s two billion users could effectively create a new world currency, perhaps even rivalling the dollar, yuan or euro.

However, given that Facebook has in the past abused data it has on billions of people, many in policy circles are opposing the cryptocurrency on the grounds that it is also a threat to national economies.

The loss of sovereignty is a huge concern for the likes of France’s finance minister who raised concerns about a cryptocurrency with huge amounts of power but no governing rules or obligations. Issues of money laundering and funding of…