Crypto’s Facebook Bump

Can a rising tide (from Facebook) lift all boats in the crypto world? That’s what some would think, as Bitcoin hitting the $9,000 mark this week for the first time in a year coincided with news that Facebook will launch its new digital currency called Libra. “Experts say the involvement of large companies like Facebook and AT&T in the crypto space is helping to lift sentiment, as it gives a degree of legitimacy to an industry long plagued by talk of illegal activity,” reports CNBC. However, while this could be very well be true in the short term, we all know how volatile the crypto market is; it wouldn’t surprise us if Bitcoin was worth $1,000 or $20,000 at the end of the year.

And as for Facebook’s digital currency, we’ll remain skeptical for the time being that it will change the world as we know it, at least until we know more about it. And interestingly, its blockchain differs from the bitcoin blockchain in that it won’t be decentralized, at least not initially. Will users — especially the libertarian-leaning types who tend to embrace cryptocurrency — trust Facebook and the rest of the Libra consortium to have final decision-making authority? One would guess no, but surprisingly, the response so far appears to be optimistic.