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 faults in their functioning.
The ability to tolerate the faults and disruptive behaviour in minority of number is referred to as Byzantine.
It implements a cryptographically verified database. This data is controlled by an allocated network of validator nodes that follows the LibraBFT agreement protocol. The protocol can stand up to one-third of the validator nodes being settled and still promises the regularity in processing the transfer of Libra. The validator nodes produce the cryptographic signatures, verifying to the state of Libra Blockchain.
It runs on a Merkle tree data structure which enables any user to use from anywhere in the world, to compile the cryptographic signatures of the validators nodes with a tiny amount of data.
Reliable Validator Nodes
it enables Libra Blockchain to bear the errors within the validator network it still needs two-thirds of the validator nodes to function properly in order for the network to be conserved. At the early stage of the network, validator nodes will be run by the founding members.
Organizations that fulfill the list of criteria to make sure that they are reputable. The target is to reach such members which means 33 faulty nodes can be tolerated at a time.
Each organization will run on its own and will remote the node from other systems the organization runs. To crack the 33 nodes to initiate an attack on the system will become an extremely difficult task for an attacker.
The Libra ecosystem is heterogeneous, the organizations which form the group of validator nodes are from a diversity of industries and sectors situated in various places across the globe.
Secure software
A well-written and secured software is must to conserve the Libra Blockchain, in other sense all the other nodes could undergo similar vulnerability. Compilation of proven techniques, innovation and engineering discipline will help you in writing a secure software.
The Software can be protected by using standard and proven technologies. The association has decided to improve the Libra core, based on the studies made on the development of the protocol. The Libra association depends on the attested cryptography protocols. The EdDSA mark plan is used to secure the transactions. Noise is used to avert a validator node from imitating another node.
In other scenarios, security relies on software engineering strictness. For instance, the Libra core is built to remote the important parts of the software that the network depends on for security from other subtle parts of the system. This safeguards that even subtle parts of the software have a bug, the main systems functionality will not be affected.
If verified algorithms and engineering discipline failed to solve the issue, Libra depends on innovative approaches. For example, a set of algorithmic approaches are being estimated to assist LibraBFT to safeguard the network against rejection service attacks.
The Move is a smart contract language and the Libra Blockchain uses it and it is specially developed for Libra. The Move is built to make it secure to write programs that direct Libra.
Incident Response Readiness
the Libra Association strives to prepare counter to potential attacks. For instance, the association will plot a plan for discussing the unusually unlikely situation that one-third of the validator nodes act spitefully and cause a fork.
This strategy would include momentarily ceasing the processing of transactions from the Libra reserve, controlling the extent of damage from the attack, and publishing a suggestion as how to software updates should be applied to fix the fork.
Protecting User Privacy
The Libra Association acknowledges the significance of privacy on the public Blockchain and it also identifies the risks of misuse. The association itself is not tangled in processing transactions and it doesn’t save any personal data of Libra users.
Transactions are managed and saved by Validator Nodes. Transactions are generated by users of the system and it contains data such as receiver and sender public blockchain address and the amount of transaction.
When this data is stored on the Libra Blockchain, a transaction will be connected to metadata containing the time transaction took place and the validator node added it to the Blockchain.
Transparency and Accountability Toward the Community
Libra is developed to be limpid by default. The operation of all validators can be verified by any entrant., and all transaction processing is accessible to everyone. The Libra association eases security reviews and will foster security researchers to spot the bugs in the blockchain software via the planned Bug Bounty Program.
Besides, the association is devoted to developing Libra Blockchain in the open to get prior feedback as key decisions are made, and this feedback will be used to turn the prototype into a robust production system.
The association will also collaborate with the worldwide community of specialists in fields like user experience, cryptography, security, engineering, policy to review and shares best operations to safeguard the security of the total Libra ecosystem.
Working with Law Enforcement
Exploitation is common in any field, currencies and financial infrastructures are also exempted. As this network is open and is accessible by everyone with internet access. The networks important endpoints need to follow laws and statutes and should cooperate with law enforcement.
Transactions take place in Libra Blockchain are pseudonymous and it is viable for third parties to analyze and identify fraud and illegal activity.
Commitment to Compliance and Consumer Protection
Overview
The improvements in civil society and developments in the private sector of a blockchain based on international currency and financial infrastructure is a huge assurance. The success of this project depends on its trustworthy and secure integration with the present financial system. The international Governments, especially regulatory and law enforcement authorities, are crucial partners in this venture.
The Libra Association plans to collaborate with policymakers as the ecosystem is evolved and operationalized, and as statutes adapt to address renovations and other changes in the market.
The Libra Association acknowledges the significance of privacy on the public blockchain and also risks of embezzling. The association never gets themselves into processing transactions and storing personal information of Libra users.
Commitment to Engagement
- Public inquiry and accountability are always welcomed.
- Devoted to have a conversation with policymakers and regulators.
- Share interest of policymakers in the ongoing stability currencies, insecure and stable banking systems, in well-built consumer defence, and in providing financial services to all people.
Libra and Financial System Regulation
The Libra Association will be in contact with sovereign governments regularly, and also with international institutions, to back and understand this new ecosystem.
The Libra Association believes in protecting and reinforcing the capability of governments to perform monetary policy and devoted to working with regulatory authorities to attain a secure, vivid and consumer-friendly execution Libra products and services. This association will be controlled and restrained by a reserve management step that will assure the safety and health of the ecosystem.
Libra and Consumer Financial Protection
users of financial services and products can be unguarded. The association is strongly devoted towards the protection of the users in the Libra ecosystem, and the Libra association acknowledges that regulators charged with consumer safety will be eager to collaborate with those building services to be proffered in their jurisdictions. In the initial development of the Libra Network, its founding members are devoted to working with authorities to mould a regulatory environment that fosters technological innovation while keeping the highest level of consumer protection.
Libra and Consumer Privacy Protection
The Libra Association is devoted to compliance with international privacy statutes and to collaborate with regulators and policymakers to mould a regulatory environment that fosters private and blockchain technology.
Individuals or organizations will function on Libra blockchain through a consumer account, which is different from their real-world identity. Authentication happens through public credentials used on the network which does not provide any of the original information of the consumer.
Only data associated with a transaction like place, address of the receiver and sender, timestamp, and the amount are recorded and exposed to the public.
Libra and Law Enforcement
Exploitation is common in any field, currencies and financial infrastructures are also exempted. As this network is open and is accessible by everyone with internet access, the networks key endpoints, in the form of wallets and exchanges, will need to follow the laws and statutes and cooperate with law enforcement.
Like other various blockchains, the transactions on Libra will be in vivid text and it is possible for third parties to analyse and sentence fraud.
Moving Toward Permissionless Consensus
Overview
Here we will discuss all the questions, challenges and decisions Libra Association will face to bring permissionless governance and consensus.
An important variance in the blockchain space is one between permissioned systems, where only a fixed set of institutions can mould consensus and governance and permissionless systems, anyone who obeys the guidelines of the protocol and bestows the required resources can do so.
The variation is important not only from a technical viewpoint but also from an economic one. permissionless systems have low barriers to entry and innovation, are against censorship attacks and foster healthy rivalry among infrastructure providers as well as designers of applications on the peak of the network.
Nobody can remove others from the market or filter their transactions, the permissionless system offers strong guarantees to entrants that no party will change the guidelines and rules of the network without others permission for their personal advantages.
Their basis permissionless system systems make permanent promises to operating as open networks where corrections can only be executed if the majority of the constituents are okay with it.
Considering all these reasons, and assuring Libra is for everyone and functions according to the choice of users, the main motto of the Libra Network is to become permissionless and the challenges to overcome are scale, security and stability to support billions of people make their transactions across the globe through a permissionless network.
With the assistance of the testnet, the association starts to develop a permissionless system. There are few economic and technical challenges that have to be faced along with the open source community to make this possible, and Libra should attain its full potential to become permissionless.
This results in one of the association’s directives to work with the community to analyse and execute the change within five years of the launch of Libra Blockchain and the ecosystem.
The Libra Blockchain is open to everyone, any developer or consumer can use the Libra Network, develop products on top of it, and add worth through their services. Open access safeguards low barriers to ingress and change and fosters healthy rivalry that benefits users.
(1) Starting Point
The association introduced a few steps to reduce some of the important concerns about the permissioned network.
No Centralized Control:The level of impact designers maintain over pemissioned networks and their capability to change the guidelines of the protocol to their edge after others have joined was an area of concern.
- The Libra Association was established and made of institutions behaving as validator nodes, wholly and democratically taking decisions on the later of the network and protocol. Libra association is an independent, non-profit institution and a single founder member cannot control the association. Each and every decision require a majority of all founding members.
- To protect the different opinions and voices raised, the founding members of the association are geographically allocated, various businesses, academic entities, and non-profit and multilateral organizations.
(2) Distributed Reserve Collateral:
The reserve is introduced to assure that Libra is the best means of exchange and store of worth from the first day.
They never wanted their assets to become a single point of failure which they used to back coins for the reserve to burn and mint coins without backing, and this brought inflation in the system.
- This is the reason why the reserve is geographically allocated and highly reputed global network custodians with investment-grade credit grading to reduce counterparty risk. Protecting the assets, giving high auditability and lucidity, avoiding the risks of the centralized reserve, and attaining operational quality are the important parameters to follow in design and custody selection.
- Without complete backing, the reserve cannot print the coins and can be only used as assets few currencies and treasuries of great stability and reputed central banks.
(3) Progressive Opening of Participation in the Network:
Founding members will improve the administration of the association and will be in place of controlling validator nodes and safeguards the network, unalterable promises have been made to swiftly open up participation to new members.
A new member will enter whenever a new Libra release, possess a stake in the network and start bestowing to consensus and administration by controlling a validator node on the network.
One who fulfills the eligibility criteria should be able to participate in the later offerings of Libra Investment tokens, there should not be any barriers for new members to join Libra. Non-profit and multilateral organizations are also eligible to apply for grants and connect with the network.
As the technology gets better, the Libra Blockchain will change from depending on the ownership of the Libra Investment Tokens- to control validator nodes and vote on administration- to depend on ownership of Libra coins.
(2) Open Technical and Economic Challenges
Before the network completely changes into permissionless, there are few answers to be found for some of the open problems detailed below. This involves several teams and association will offer grants for researchers and other teams helped to find answers.
(2.1) Technical and Economic Challenges
Defining on-chain governance contracts.
some administration methods and actions, like the clarity of validator nodes, set epochs, reporting, abuses and fee distribution, etc., may originally be performed off-chain by the association.
The actions of the administration should be executed on-chain to become permissionless along with the capability to shape the rules of the network over time.
Market design
They have complete knowledge about the administration and balanced structure of a financial system based on stakeholdings and user trust in wallets and other delegates.
In the run, Libra discovered new market trade-offs among the Libra approach and traditional choices like proof of work. More research is required to direct how good to carry long-run rivalry in the ecosystem while safeguarding the security and productivity of the network.
Scaling
The primary system the will be developed aims to have 1,000 tx/sec for a set of 100 validator nodes. The growth of the validator node will directly responsible for the decrease in the performance.
Understanding the Sybil resistance assumption
The present expectation is that more than two third of votes are coming from genuine part takers. At the initial stage, this needs that two third of the owners of the Libra Investment Token Act for the good of the network.
After the change of network two third of coin holders should be genuine. A spiteful institution can gather coin holdings and try to charge the system and precautions will need to in place to avoid such behaviour.
Defining an effective and fair model for delegation of stake and for responding to validator node misbehavior.
Whoever holds a Libra will become a validator node when the network is permissionless, the association should explain how users who are not interested in taking part in consensus process will be able to give this role to institutions they can trust and foremost, what data should be given so that they can change their decision if spam or abuse is noticed.
Defining a strategy for extending the Move platform on top of a permissionless network.
At present Move language is not only open to develop smart contracts like the one that looks after the validator node set and Libra coin.
The association is planning to expose themselves to the third party improvements only after the stabilization of the Language.
To allow effective choice making after the alteration to permissionless, the association needs to make some rules and regulations that favor the community make choices around important questions, like the direction of innovation of the language and speed of important updates to it.
Decentralizing the reserve function.
The reserve enables the consumers of the system to enjoy a comparatively stable means of exchange from the beginning. It also means a centralized function.
The increase in the market rivalry in the custody and administration of the reserve will also constitute to improve the efficiency of this service and the costs it levies on users and curators overtime.
(2.2) Governance Challenges
Defining processes for the evolution of the protocol.
The Protocol needs to develop and launch new features in answer to new requirements that the network will realize as it scales. All this process happens with the delegation between the open-source community and the association.
Understanding how the association can support a healthy ecosystem.
When the administration is allocated, the association will have to develop a robust on-chain process for synchronizing responses and preventing the abuses of the network.
Defining emergency governance and breaks. Defining emergency governance and breaks.
What happens if it gets hit by the worst attack, connectivity issues, or other international events take place that impacts on operations of the network.
To assure safety for such kind of issues the association should build a robust process for support to unfold in a new decentralized way.
Move: A Language With Programmable Resources
Abstract
The Move is a safe and pliable programming language for the Libra blockchain. It is a practicable bytecode language used to execute smart contracts and smart transactions. The main feature of the Move is the capability to explain custom resource types with semantics influence by linear logic.
We can never copy a reserve or discard it, the reserve can only be moved between program storage locations. Moves type system guarantees you the safety. Apart from these specific protections, resources are normal program values.
Primary resources are very basic concepts that programmers can use not only to execute safe digital assets but also to write accurate business logic for closing assets and by applying access control policies.
The security and expressivity of Move has allowed to execute important aspects of the Libra Protocol in Move, inclusive of validator management, transaction processing, and Libra coin.
To know more about Move Programming Languageclick here….
State Machine Replication in the Libra Blockchain
LibraBFT is a robust and well-organized state machine replication system developed especially for the Blockchain.
It is based on Hotstuff, an arrangement that supports several decades of scientific improvements in Byzantine fault tolerance (BFT) and gains brawny scalability and security stuff needed by internet settings.
LibraBFT additionally improves the Hotstuff Protocol to initiate clear liveness mechanisms and offers a palpable latency analysis.
To continue the inclusion with the Libra Blockchain, this article will help you in providing specifications extracted from a totally functional simulator. These features comprise state replication interfaces and a communication structure for data transfer and state synchronization among participants.
The below link will help you in knowing misbehavior of BFTnodes, combined with basic reward and punishment mechanism.
State Machine Replication in the Libra Blockchain
How to Become a Founding Member
Overview:
The Libra association members control the validator nodes and the Libra blockchain will include geographically allocated and multiple businesses, non-profit and multilateral organizations and academic entities.
The early group of organizations that work collectively on concluding the associations charter and become founding members after its completion.
Payments – Stripe, Visa, Mastercard, Pago, Paypal, Marcado, and PayU.
Technology and marketplaces – Ebay, Booking Holdings, Facebook, Lyft, Uber Technologies, and Farfetch.
Telecommunication – Iliad, Vodafone Group.
Blockchain – Bison Anchorage, Coinbase, Trails, Inc., Xapo Holdings Limited.
Venture Capital – Horowitz, Breakthrough Initiatives, Ribbit Capital, Thrive Capital, Breakthrough Initiatives, Union Square Ventures, Andreessen.
Nonprofit and multilateral organizations, and academic institutions –
Creative Destruction Lab, Kiva, Mercy Corps, Women’s World Banking.
The Libra Association is developed to support the operations of the Libra Blockchain and the coordination and harmony among its important stakeholders – the validator nodes.
The mission of the Libra Association is to develop a simple global currency that can be accessible to billions of people across the globe.
You can read more about association operations and governance here.
Validatory nodes are the reason for securing the network and validating transactions. For this reason, the validator nodes must be updated regularly with the latest software version. To become a founding member during the starting stage is open to non-profit and multilateral organizations and academic research entities from all over the world should meet the criteria. Read more on that transition here.
To become a validator node and founding member of the Libra Association, the organizations interested to apply should meet technical criteria and organization evolution requirements which will be assessed and validated by the association.
Technical Requirements:
The organizations that want to join in Libra association are left with two hosting options.
self-hosted and cloud service-hosted.
Running a Self-Hosted Validator Node
Self-hosted validator nodes are hosted in data centers run and controlled by that association member.
Hardware requirements for running a self-hosted validator node:
- Server space should be at least half of a rack – the association does not expect this space will be used instantly, it is expected that the further versions of Libra Core may use different servers.
- High-speed internet connection with redundancy.
Personnel requirements for running a self-hosted validator node:
- An engineer to look after the software and protect the validator node.
- An assured infrastructure developed to safeguard the availability and safety of the node to fight it against, for example, DDoS attacks, attacks on server hosting validator node and attack on the data center.
Running a Cloud Service Validator Node
Organizations interested in running a validator node through a cloud service provider, the association will offer the tools and documentation to support deployment.
The recommended Hardware for Amazon web services m5.24xlarge instance type. The association will share further details in the coming months.
Association Technical Support
The association is anxious to help organizations keep up their node, whether they be self-hosted pr cloud-hosted. In both cases this is applicable:
Software for blockchain infrastructure that can be used on Validator nodes.
Docker images for cloud deployments and possibly other container solutions.
However, partners will be accountable for the validator node, the association will make the software integratable into famous open-source observing tools to help in this process. The association will also offer an appreciable level of help for debugging and troubleshooting issues.
The association will control the open-source Libra Core software, which powers the validator nodes.
Business Evaluation Criteria
Businesses that wish to become a founding member should meet the following criteria:
Market value/customer balances:
- Measure – More than $1 billion USD in market value or higher than $500 million USD user balances.
Scale
- Measure – Reach more than 20 million people annually, internationally
Brand sustainability
- Measure – Acknowledged as a top 100 industry head by a third party sector association or digital company.
- The association noticed that, at the beginning of industry evolution, some businesses haven’t touched the market value. Keeping this in knowledge, the following criteria are applicable to those businesses.
Crypto-focused investors:
- Greater than $1 billion of assets under management (AUM).
Blockchain infrastructure companies
- Should be active for more than 12 months
- Workers security, privacy, and infrastructure operations supported by modern policies and processes.
- investing more than or equal to $100 million in assets for users or clients.
The association may also approve even though businesses do not meet the criteria only if their contribution is making sense and helping in the development or success of the Network. The total number of members are taken under the crypto-focused investor criteria, and exclusion process above will not be more than one-third of the total members in the association.
Social Impact Partner Evaluation Criteria
The social impact partners who want to become a founding member should fulfil at least three of the following criteria:
Mission lining up with Libra to reach the unbanked and including an eagerness to use new methods, like Blockchain:
- Measure: The track record of working for more than five years on demolishing poverty, plus digital financial additional initiatives in the field or already schemed.
Global reach:
- Measure- if an international organization, the number of countries presently active, and the number of people got help.
- Measure- If a geo-specific organization, extend into the target market noticing the key populations of underbanked and unbanked.
Trust:
- U.S.ranking : Top-100 ranking in Charity Navigator, Charity Navigator International, GuideStar, NGO Advisor, Devex, or GiveWell.
- Rest of world ranking— variance and dependability of funding sources and proven social impact.
Scale:
- The annual budget should be more than $50 million USD.
Academic Institution Evaluation Criteria
For academic entities to become a Founding Member, they have to fulfil the following criteria:
Trust
Secured and well-built computer science department.
Benefits
Apart from bestowing to social good, there are several other potential incentives for organizations to take part in:
A prominent role in association administration. For more information, please go here.
Being qualified for new user incentives and transaction refunds.
Obtaining dividends from Libra Investment Tokens.
Joining the Libra Association
The organization that meets the above-mentioned criteria has the ability to meet the technical requirements mentioned, and is interested in operating a validator node and being a part of Libra Association, kindly use the contact mentioned here.
LIBRA WHITEPAPER IS HERE.
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