Facebook Cryptocurrency Chief Says Libra Is Not a Threat to Bitcoin
David Marcus, vice president of messaging products at Facebook and lead for its crypto project Libra has shot down comparisons with bitcoin. | Source: REUTERS/Stephen Lam
By CCN.com: Facebook confirmed that its new cryptocurrency Libra isn’t designed to kill or compete with bitcoin. David Marcus, the man leading Facebook’s crypto efforts, said Libra and bitcoin can co-exist with differing use cases and that’s he a big fan of BTC.
In a tweet yesterday, he explained that Libra is designed to be a stable payment system. On the other hand, Bitcoin, he believes, is a store of value or a non-correlated asset, playing into the ‘digital gold’ narrative.
“Many want to pit Libra vs. Bitcoin. In my mind these two are not in the same category. BTC is a decorrelated (investment) asset. Libra is designed to be a stable medium-of-exchange. I have been, and remain a fan of BTC, but for very different purposes.”
Facebook cryptocurrency vs Bitcoin: different uses
Marcus, who was former president at PayPal, claims Libra is a better digital cash and payment system, while bitcoin is a long-term investment vehicle.
As CCN.com reported, almost no-one is using bitcoin for payment transactions. In 2019, only 1.3 percent of bitcoin transactions involved merchants. In other words, most BTC users are holding for the long term.
However, Marcus may be underestimating bitcoin’s ability to muscle into the payments space in the future. Bitcoin volatility will gradually reduce over time, allowing it to be a more viable form of peer-to-peer transfer and payment system.
David Marcus: “I’m a fan of BTC”
Marcus expanded his thoughts on CNBC , calling the Facebook cryptocurrency a “very high-quality form of digital money.”
“This is really designed from the ground up to be a great medium of exchange and very high-quality form of digital money that you can use for everyday payments, cross border payments, micro transactions.”
His statements are significant. During the entire Libra rollout, none of Facebook’s marketing materials mention bitcoin by name. Marcus has now come out and aligned Libra with the world’s largest cryptocurrency.
