Saga launches SGA token to rival Facebook’s libra cryptocurrency

One blockchain company thinks it has an alternative to Facebook’s digital currency proposal.

With an advisory board that includes top economists like Nobel Prize-winner Myron Scholes, U.K.-based firm Saga hopes to introduce a global currency that regulators find agreeable.

The company on Tuesday launched its saga (SGA) token, a virtual currency tied to a basket of currencies in order to maintain a stable value. That’s not too dissimilar to Facebook’s libra, which was met with a barrage of regulatory opposition moments after being announced. But one key thing that sets it apart from that project is what Saga bases the currency’s value on.

Rather than creating a new asset basket like libra’s, Saga is pegging its token’s value to bank deposits in the same group of currencies that form the International Monetary Fund’s special drawing rights (SDR) — these are international reserve assets held by central banks to supplement their…