Libra Coin – Facebook New Digital Currency

Everything You Need To Know About Libra Coin

Technology has improved the world around us, it is easy to send texts, pictures, and documents but why not money.

What if we made the money truly global, stable, and secure. What if everyone has invited to the Global economy with access to the same financial opportunities.

This thought laid a pavement for Introducing LIBRA a new global currency designed for the digital world, backed by the belief that money should be fast for everyone from any corner of the world.

Its powered by Blockchain, making it safe, accessible, no matter who you are and where you’re from.

Join the world of Libra where money works for everyone.

The Libra mission

A simple global currency and financial infrastructure that empowers billions of people.

Revamp money. Revolutionize the Global Economy. For better lives.

31% of the global population is still unbanked, the leftover people who have access costs are high. it costs 7% to send money internationally.
85% of the global transactions take place in the form of cash, cash is hard to move and store but easy to steal. US retail businesses lose about $40 billion annually due to the theft of cash.
For poor and unbanked costs are even higher, they pay $4 higher fees per month for cash access.
At this point making digital financial services accessible to everyone can have a big impact.
It adds $3.7 trillion for the development of the economy and creates 95 million job opportunities.
It improves people’s earning potential by 20% and reduces extreme poverty by 22%.

Who you are? What you are ? and where you are from? These are not a matter of concern. Libra is built to make money work for everyone.

Libra for everyone

Sending and receiving money should be as easy as sending a text, no matter where you live, what you do and how much you earn.

Mobile – A smartphone and data connection, that’s all you need to access Libra.
Stable – A reserve is made to back Libra which helps in keeping its value stable.
Fast – Transactions are easy and quick with Libra.
For the world – Libra is accessible from any part of the globe.
Scalable – Libra will promote an ecosystem of products and services made to help people use Libra in their day-to-day lives.
Secure – Making security as its priority, Libra is built on Blockchain technology.

A CLOSER LOOK AT

Libra reserve

The purpose of the reserve

Most of the cryptocurrencies that are currently active in the market don’t have any fundamental assets to back them. Being speculations and investments as a primary use case, people bought these coins hoping they might get a higher value for resale.

But the value of these coins fluctuate more than expectations, so do their prices and this results in the massive swing of the value.

To grab the universal appeal, Libra is designed to be a currency even common people will know the value of Libra today and how much it’s going to be in the future. Just like a person in the US knows the number of dollars it takes them to buy a pizza today will be the same as the number of dollars it will take them tomorrow. This boosts up the confidence in Libra holder, by assuring that the value of their coins will be stable all the time.

The reserve is the key procedure to maintain the value of Libra. Each coin is supported by a set of constant and liquid assets and by collaborating with a competitive group of exchanges and other providers of liquidity. This gives confidence to the users that they can sell their Libra coin anytime at a value that is nearer to the reserve.

This quality makes Libra unique and protects from falling into the speculation theories like other cryptocurrencies.

How Is the Reserve Getting Set Up?

There are various parts in this section that should be discussed. First, from where the money is coming to reserve? Second, how will the reserve be invested? Third, where is it being held? Fourth, what are the assets that back each Libra coin?

From where the money is coming to reserve?

money enters in to reserve mainly through two sources, investors in the separate Investment Token and secondly from the users of Libra.

The association will remunerate incentives in Libra coin to Founding Members to embolden the adoption by merchants, developers and users. From a private placement, funds will be generated for coins and distributed to investors.

The purchase of Libra for fiat and transfer of fiat to reserve should be equal to generate a new Libra. This results in the growth of reserve according to the user’s demand to increase Libra. The only way to create more Libra is by purchasing more Libra for fiat and growing the reserve.

How will the reserve be invested?

Libra does not give any returns to the user. Assets with less rick and more interest will be invested by the reserve. Whatever money is made from this investment will directly go to aid the operating expenses of the alliance, to fund investments in the growth, engineering research, etc.

The remaining returns will be directed to initial investors in the Libra Investment Token for their contribution. The returns for early investors depend on the success of the network and the growth of reserve.

How is the reserve being held?

The reserve will be held by a geographically allocated network of guardians investment-grade credit rating to curb counterparty peril.

Protecting the reserve’s assets and maintaining transparency, staying away from the risks of the centralized reserve, and attaining operational efficiency are the major norms in custody selection and design.

What are the actual assets that will be backing each Libra coin?

The actual assets will be a collection of stable assets. It also includes security and bank deposits from central banks. The value of Libra is connected with a bunch of fiat currencies, considering any particular currency, there will be shifts in the value of Libra.

On the capital conservation point, the association will finance only in debts with steady governments with less probability that are improbable to involve in high inflation. Multiple governments diverse the reserve and decreases the impact of such events.

How Do Entities Interact With the Reserve?

Buyers will not directly interact with the reserve. Preferably, to brace excessive efficiency there will be licensed re-sellers who will be the only bodies licensed by the association to exchange heavy amounts of Libra and fiat in and out of the reserve. This licensed re-sellers will combine with transactions and other organizations that sell and buy cryptocurrencies to customers, and provide these bodies with liquidity for customers who want to change from cash to Libra and vice versa.

The organization does not set any financial policies. It produces coins based on the demand for licensed re-sellers. One should not fret about the organization introducing inflation into the system. To mint new coins there should be an equal payment of fiat by re-sellers to reserve. Interaction with licensed re-sellers, association mints new coins when the demand increases and destroys them when demand decreases.

The organization will uplift the listing of Libra on various controlled electronic exchanges all over the world. These transactions offer both mobile apps and web portals for users to sell and buy Libra. Discussions going on in organizations regarding relationships with cryptocurrency trading firms and banking institutions as licensed re-sellers to give people the chance to trade their traditional currency for Libra in the easiest way.

Consumer Financial Protection and Law Enforcement

Users of financial services and products can be exposed. The Libra ecosystem is very committed when it comes to consumer protection, and the Libra organization acknowledges that the regulators levied with user protection will be eager to engage with that building assistance to be provided in their jurisdictions.

In the initial growth of Libra Network, its founding members are devoted to working with authorities to mould a regulatory environment that cheers technological changes while keeping consumer protection as their priority.

Trials will be made to exploit Libra as they did with other currencies and financial institutions. There are some rules and laws to be followed to use the network which is open and available to everyone with internet access, network main endpoints in the form of wallets and transactions.

How Will the Reserve Change Over Time?

The users of Libra can have confidence that any Libra coin they are possessing can be sold or exchanged for fiat currency at above or below the worth of underlying reserve as the reserve is backed all the time.

According to the changes, the market organization will change the configuration of the basket, but the motto will always be to conserve the value. And this change requires unusual circumstances and majority voting by the association’s council.

The balances of Libra users decide the size of the reserve. Based on the external factors, supply will not be restricted which happens with other cryptocurrencies. This plays a prominent role in allowing the Libra ecosystem to increase or decrease with demand.

Libra coin is fully backed with a competitive ecosystem of exchanges. It is easy to exchange Libra to fiat with a small margin of above or below the current value. It doesn’t matter how many Libra coins are in circulation or the number of people holding, the market value always supports to sell their Libra for the current value of fiat currency.

The main motto of Libra is to make it equivalent to all existing currencies. Keeping the reach of Libra in mind, the organization decided not to create its own financial policy but to take over the policies of central banks mentioned in the basket. But the approach is similar to the way currency boards have functioned. Central banks can print their currency on their own preference, currency board mostly prints local currency only when the foreign exchanges enough to support new minting coins and notes.

Underlying assets are selected for their low stability and protection from abuse in the future, these are the two important factors that played their part in implementing this system.

To introduce the more stable cryptocurrency to billions of people which serves as a low-friction medium of transfer globally has always been one of the major objectives from the very first day. Libra reserve plays an important role in protecting the user resources, merchants, building trust and preserving the value of Libra.

The Libra Blockchain

Abstract

The Libra Blockchain is a decentralized, programmable database delineated to back a more stable cryptocurrency that will have the potential to serve as a well-organized channel of exchange for billions of people all around the world.

There is a Libra protocol to contrivance the Libra Blockchain and focuses to build a financial infrastructure that encourages innovation, nether hurdles to entry, and improves access to financial services.

To ratify the Libra protocol, the Libra core is implemented anticipating global integration to improve this new ecosystem.

This protocol allows a set of models – named as validators- from several authorities to mutually preserve a database of programmable means. These means are possessed by various user accounts verified by public key cryptography and adhere to custom rules quoted by the builders of these means.

Validators make transactions and commune with each other to reach an agreement on the state of the database. Transactions are based on a new programming language called Move.

Move language is used to explain the mechanism of blockchains, such as the currency and validator membership. These important mechanisms allow the creation of distinctive governance mechanism that develops on the less volatility and reputation of subsisting institutions in the initial days but changed to a completely open system over time.

The Libra Association

Overview: The Association & Council

Libra is an independent association, it is a non-profit organization going forward with a mission to emancipate billions of people across the globe by providing them a global currency and financial infrastructure.

The validator nodes of the Libra network makes the association. Primarily, these are international corporations, social impact partners, and academic institutions. In due course, the association will incorporate any institution that operates validatory nodes and possesses enough stakes in Libra.

The role of the association is to synchronize the validator nodes, attempts to evolve and secure the network and to promote their combined insight of financial inclusion. The two important fields of governance and coordination are:

Technical- To work for the progression among the open-source community around the network’s technical roadmap and validator nodes.

Financial- To run reserve and issue funds to social causes.

In the initial years of Libra Network, there were few extra roles that needed to be performed. They are:

To recruit a founding member to serve validator nodes.
To collect funds from members and investors through the sale of Libra investment tokens.
Execution of incentive programs and design, including the distributions of such incentives to founding members.
Libra Investment Token investors should be distributed by dividends.

These roles are not required once the Libra network develops into a fully permission less blockchain.

The controlling body of the Libra association is called a Libra association council which consists of a representative of each member of the council. The operations and policy decisions are made by voting depending on the importance of the decision.

Let us discuss the responsibilities, roles and governance mechanisms of the Libra Association.

(1) Goals and Principles

(A) Goals

The association is aiming for:

The change to permissionless governance and agreement node operation, by erasing the hurdles to entry for participation and reducing the dependence on founding members.
Decreasing the association’s role as manager of the Libra Reserve by completely automating reserve management.
Gradually, the purpose is for the association’s primary role to be the harmonization of the open-source community to define and improve the technical roadmap of Libra Network.

(B) Principles

Principles of the association’s governance :

Mission: To create an international currency and infrastructure that emancipates billions of people. To complete its mission, the association hankers to create firm partnerships with organizations whose aim is to foster financial inclusion with developers and researchers who want to bestow their talent to the development of applications and instruments that will bring the vision into reality.

Decision making:

Power of validators:Validator nodes, shown in the council have the utmost power. The council assigns most of its administrative powers to associations management but keeps the authority to override delegated decisions and retains important decisions to itself, with the most prominent one requiring a greater majority.

Proportional power: The voting power in the council is equal to the investment, which is a replica of the amount of commitment of the member regarding the network.

Open and collaborative: Decision making is translucent to the colossal community and common among others.

Efficient: The goal of the association is to make decision making as efficient as possible and will support its members for the implementation of its decisions to the possible extent.

Technology:

Open source: open source will be the code and technology backing the Libra Blockchain and it is upgraded by the open source developer and research community.

Development: It ensures the best advancements in Libra Blockchain to accomplish its mission and constituents by funding and encouraging new research development.

(C) Reserve management

The association manages the Libra reserve keeping value preservation as its main goal.
The association mints Libra according to the growth of assets and basket of currencies.
The activities of the association are controlled by reserve management policy and it can be changed only by the higher majority of association members.

(2) Libra Association Council

(A) Council Membership

You need to have a stake in the success of the financial network to become a member.

Founding members:

The introductory members of the council are the founding members and work as the networks primary validatory node.
To become that node, an institution should invest at least $10 million in the network via buying Libra Investment Tokens.
Every $10 million investment grants one vote in the council.
The Libra Association Council will not allow the institutions which present themselves as two distinct founding members to avoid the consequences.
The capitalist who purchases the Libra Investment Tokens but does not show interest in operating the validator node and in due course if he returns and choose to operate will instantly become a founding member.

Membership in the council will gradually change depending on the growth of the Libra ecosystem. Its share will be held in custody by or assigned to a validator node.

Fresh members will be joined to the council, they represent the parties which hold Libra in custody and function as validator nodes, after achieving certain network growth milestones counting the validation by the council of the technical plan for becoming permissionless.
The speed of transition, along with the network growth and technical milestones, will be decided by the Libra Association Council. 20% of the voting power will be given to node operators depending on the quantity of Libra held by them, not only quantity but also stake. This all may happen by the fifth anniversary of Libra.

Regardless of the Libra share tokens and Libra held by it, an individual founding member can only be represented by eminent of 1% of votes in the council. Cap is not applicable to the validator nodes that are not Founding members, joined the network through holding Libra.

This cap is developed to avert concentration of voting capability in the hand of a single party. It does not rein the financial return accepted from the Libra investment tokens, which is comparable to the size of the stake.
Founding members who acquire Libra at a value that gives them the voting power exceeding the above cap will make the extra votes available for the delegation of Libra Association Board.
The board, based on the recommendation of the Libra Social Impact Advisory Board (SIAB, see below), may delegate some of or all these votes to SIPs (see below) or research institutions, provided that:

They are efficient and devoted to control a validator node and, therefore, take part in governance but unable to make the investment of $10 million which is minimal.
They are eligible to take part in the SIP or research institution.
SIPs and research institutions are subject to the same voting cap as Founding Members; and
The entire voting power given to such SIPs and research institutions are not greater than one-third of total voting power in the council.

The deputation of voting power under this scheme:

It does not allow a participant SIP to accept dividends related to Libra investment token.
The process described to remove the founding member is the same to rescind by the council if a SIP fails to meet the validator node eligibility criteria.

Extra votes made accessible to the board and not given to SIPs of research institutions may be allocated by the board among other founding members equally to continue the relative total voting capability of founding members collated to that of further validator nodes.

There is a limitation on the number of active validator nodes in Libra Protocol from several years and it is expected the numbers will increase in the future. The council will set a limit to the number of actives nodes based on testing. Council will amend this limit from time to time. The council member with fewer votes will be removed if the limit exceeds. If there is between any two members then continuous service duration will be taken into consideration.

To stop the count of inactive validator nodes in the network from extending to a level that could threaten the productiveness of consensus protocol, a person can be removed automatically from the council if his node does not participate in any consensus algorithm for days consecutively.

(B) Rules & Authorities

Appoint and remove the members of the Libra Association Board.

Elect and remove the association’s Managing Director, and settle by giving compensation.

Validate the budget of the association every year.

Delegate authorization allowing elements of the Libra Association to do their respective duties.

Commence features in the Libra protocol as moved to the validators, with the help of the vote of the council to activate a smart contract that implements the feature.

Remove founding members:

A founding who fails to fulfil the founding member criteria can be evicted by majority votes of the council. The member’s node from the consensus will be removed once the vote is recorded.

The eviction of a Founding Member results in the instant eviction from the council of the council member representing that member.

To power to make a decision or to dismiss on behalf of the Libra Association Board.
The principles to make a decision change are:

The administration and association roles should be within the descriptions made in the document.

Eligibility criteria of founding members.

Incentives distribution policy.

Reserve management policy.

There is a possibility that the council might create a committee and give authority to its members except for the authority of decision making that requires a majority of votes.

(C) Council Meetings

The council will have its meetings twice a year set by Libra Association Board at least 25 days prior. The council members of the board can mobilize the meeting of the council at least five days prior. The council has the right to cancel or reschedule a future meeting that has scheduled already.
All meetings will take place at the time given in the notice of the meeting. Members can also attend the council meeting through video conference.

(D) Voting

The decisions listed above needs a supermajority of council votes to keep the decision. Two third of the council votes will give you enough majority.

All other decisions will need a normal majority of the council votes, which is one of the following:

At least two third of the members with voting should present in the meeting and half of them should support the decision.

(3) Libra Association Board

(A) Role

The Libra Association board is formed to be a supportive body on behalf of the libra Association Council, supporting the association’s executive team by giving operational guidance.

(B) Membership

The board consists a minimum of 5 members and a maximum of 19 members, the exact number decided by the council can change anytime. The members of board the are:

Managing Director of Libra Association.
Members of the council.

At the first meeting of the council, the first elections will be held.

The members can be reelected every year and their term is one year.

A board member can be removed by the council at any point of time with a regular majority. Membership of the board is automatically canceled if the board member is not a council member or managing director.
The decisions made by board need a regular majority of votes, that is:

Half of the votes participate in voting should support the decision.

(C) Responsibilities

The responsibilities and duties of the board will be decided by the council. Other than the authorities which require supermajority voting remaining all authorities can be assigned to board. The major roles of the board are:

The budget of the association should be approved before the approval of the council.
Suggest to the council timing of fundraising with the sale of new Libra investment tokens or the drop of such sale if the fund raising is not necessary for the growth of the Libra ecosystem in certain cases.
To get quarterly updates from the associations executive team on the Libra ecosystem progress and status, and to mention the topics to be discussed and the information to be provided in these progress and status reports.
Reject or take decisions on behalf of the managing director of the association if it’s brought in to notice.
Plan the meetings and set the agenda about what should be discussed.
To call for an emergency vote of the council.
Sanction funding and grant recommendations by Libra Social Impact Advisory Board.

(4) Social Impact Advisory Board

(A) Role

The Libra Social Impact Advisory Board (SIAB) is built to act as an advisory board on behalf of the Libra Association council led by social impact partners which is an inclusive academic institution, non-profit and multilateral organizations.

(B) Membership

The advisory board consists of five to seven members. The council has the right to change the number of advisory board members. The members of the board are:

The Managing Director of the Libra Association.
Academic institutions and SIPs representatives, elected by the council.

At the first meeting of the council, the first elections will be held.

The members of the advisory can be reelected every year and their term is one year.

Advisory board members can be removed by the council at any point of time with a regular majority.

(C) Responsibilities

To frame a SIAB long term strategic agenda with associations meeting.

Improving the criteria for how SIAB will suggest the distribution of grants and social-impact investments.

Developing and executing the process for grant submissions, including picking grantees.

Grants and funding recommendations accorded upon by SIAB will be brought for ratification to the Libra Association Board.

Recommendations should be made to Libra Association Board In away SIPs should be approved to serve as nodes.

(5) The Association’s Executive Team

(A) Role

The executive team conducts all the operations of Libra Network, including:

Expediting the development of Libra Network.
Running the Libra Reserve.
Collecting funds from founding members through the sales of Libra Investment Tokens to certified investors in a private placement.
Accommodating funds back to founding members and to all capitalists by following the terms and policies set by the association.
Managing Director leads and recruits the executive team.

(B) Managing Director

Council elects the MD for every three years and also if the person is removed or quits.

The MD will be a full-time worker of the association and member of the Libra Association Board.

Any member of the council has the right to suggest a candidate for the MD role.

The MD can be reelected.

The MD will be elected in the first meeting of the council.

(C) Managing Director Responsibilities

The responsibilities and duties of the MD and his/her executive team get from the powers of the council and will be negotiated by the council. The duties includes:

Libra network management:

Explain the process for controlling the Libra Protocol specification source manage repository, it comprises the process for reviewing and accepting customizations to the protocol.
Explain the process for controlling Libra Core execution of Libra Protocol, it comprises the process for reviewing and accepts customization to the execution.
Releases and distributes the Libra Core Software, and back nodes as required in the installation and maintenance of the Libra Core Software.
Correlates security reviews, and put products through strict security testing.
Occupy with development teams to encourage and seek contributions to Libra Protocol and Libra Core, and fund them if necessary.
Suggest to nodes to upgrade the software they are on and synchronize the scheduling of those upgrades.
To go through the permissionless blockchain technologies and, suggest to the board and council paths for change to such technology.

Libra reserve management

Implement the reserve management policy, including:
Inspect the process of burning and minting Libra.
Confirm that the value of assets in the reserve fulfil the policy criteria.
Invest reserve assets in less risk assets while keeping high liquidity, per policy.
Give permission to the third party liquidity providers to exchange Libra to assets in the reserve, per policy.
Distribute funds raised from interest on the reserve to fund the association activities.
Suggest to the council changes in reserve management policy in the utmost situations, such that a change may be required.

Fundraising and recruiting of Founding Members:

Look out and request eligible parties to join the Libra Network as stakeholders or founding members.
Control the scale Libra Investment Token to certified investors and founding members.

Incentive and dividends management:

Be in touch with the association reserve to use the generated capital to buy Libra.
Inspect the distribution of bonuses in the form of Libra to eligible founding member per the incentives distribution policy, and audit founding members record as required.
When enough income is collected in the reserve, check the distribution of dividends to all stakeholders per the Libra Investment Token terms.
Give funds to back the association’s activities, per approved Budget.
Give monthly reports to the board concerning the gathering of investment and distribution of dividends and incentives.

(D) Executive Team

MD will recruit a team to attain the association roles, which likely includes:

In the absence of MD, Deputy MD/COO will serve HR and administrative team.
Chief Financial Officer — treasury and currency-exchange team, investor relations team
Head of Product — software and Libra network management team; developer community management team
Head of Business Development — BD team, Founding Members relations team
Head Economist — economics team
Head of Policy — advocacy and communications teams
Head of Compliance and Financial Intelligence
General Counsel — legal team

The members of the association will strive to do their best in allocating resources to back the association’s executive team in the implementation of their responsibilities and duties.

Security and Privacy on the Libra Network

Overview

The primary responsibility of the Libra Association is to maintain the security of the Libra Network. Libra Association’s commitments to security and privacy are discussed below:

A Secure Network

The Libra Blockchain is an apportioned system that looks after both ownership of Libra and the exchange of Libra from one user to another. It is a mandatory thing that every user of Libra should recognize the consistent view of the system. Otherwise, a spiteful actor might claim he was paid when he didn’t even send funds. This is called “double spending attack”.

Here helps the Blockchain by preventing this type of attacks using LibraBFT, an adaptation of HotStuff Byzantine Fault Tolerant agreement protocol. Decades of research went into building LibraBFT, the research was mainly on the behaviour of the computer when they work together despite few computers have fault