And now there are two contenders for the “2019 Crypto Hubris Award”, as if Libra needed a competitor to spur it on to victory or to smash it flat in defeat. Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by volume, in its infinite wisdom has decided to join the race to assist the un-banked masses of the world with its own Libra-like stablecoin. Once again, we must reach back into astrology or astonomy to choose a worthy name to serve as a rallying cry for crypto advocates or for officials and politicians looking for an easy target upon which to vent their scorn. Venus now joins Libra in the “ring of fire”.
According to the Dailyhodl.com’s coverage of the announcement:
Binance is looking to create new alliances and partnerships with governments, corporations, technology companies, and other cryptocurrency companies and projects involved in the larger blockchain ecosystem, to empower developed and developing countries to spur new currencies.
Staff even went so far as to say that Venus would be an “independent regional version of Libra”, whatever that means in the context of being a global platform.
It almost sounds like a clarion call for any government that wants to have a digitized stablecoin to act as or replace its local fiat currency, then Binance will be there to support your local effort, while also tying together its global network to provide low cost and efficient cross-border payments. According to Cryptonewsz.com, Binance wants to go further and “invites more organizations, governments, organizations, and associations with a strong influence on a worldwide scale to work together with it for the Venus project.”
Binance is not Facebook. It does not have over 2.5 billion active customers to leverage, but it does have a large global footprint and blockchain operating platforms that support a number of stablecoins. Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the charismatic CEO and leader of the Binance global miracle, has typically been a voice of reason for the crypto industry, one known for high ethical standards and desirous of a cooperative relationship with the same individuals that previously lambasted Facebook back in July. This opinion could change, when the Binance statement included words like “hopes to demolish the financial dominance and reshape the world’s monetary framework.”
If there is someone in the industry that could pull off a “Venus” miracle, CZ may be the man. All we have at this juncture is an announcement and quite a few interpretations of what is hidden between the lines. There is no multi-page whitepaper, like the one that Facebook published, detailing more than they, perhaps, needed to disclose at so early in the Libra project life cycle, but what is done, is done. For now, CZ appears to be offering a hand of support and a desire for a collaborative effort to assist any nation that hopes to have a “Central Bank Digital Currency”, in line with what the IMF has suggested.
It remains to be seen if any regulator or government or central bank, for that matter, would be open to an independent third party playing a large role in distributing a national fiat stablecoin in digitized form to its constituents. CZ and Binance will soon learn how appealing their Venus offering might be with governments in the weeks to come.
More on Libra and Binance:
- Binance hackers start the laundering process again – Funds on the move
- Is Binance launching a fiat-to-crypto exchange in South Korea?
- Binance Research Findings: Correlations within crypto industry on decline
- Facebook caught up in another privacy debacle – Is Libra now in jeopardy?
- Libra skeptics grow – UK Information Commissioner at odds with security