Please see
this for background.
No, Facebook's new cryptocurrency, Libra, is not a new 'world currency,' as The Economist proclaims, nor a way to supplant (or protect Facebook and users against) the world's fiat money, as Bill Blain seems to think.
It's not even a real cryptocurrency whose value (in theory) stands on its supply and demand. Libra's value will be pegged to a basket of dollars, euro, etc. by the Central Bank of Facebook.
What it will be is
a new colony of the Western empire. A country can, these days, be a sphere of activity, not just a geographic area. Libra may be transacted across borders, but it is no universal money if its value comes from activities on Facebook and is issued and backed only by the Central Bank of Facebook. (The Central Bank of Facebook stands ready to redeem each coin for a basket of national currencies, at a fixed rate.)
Why 'colony?' Because what Facebook will do is precisely what official colonies of Britain and unofficial ones of America have done for centuries: use the value of real products and services produced in the colony to help support the paper money issued by Britain or America. (To protect itself against the monetary policies of the 'mother country,' a colony must sell exports to buy and store reserves of the paper currency of the 'mother country.' But, yes, you guessed it, not gold or silver.)
In any real sense, Libra will never be 100% backed by reserves of 'real money,' (as The Economist calls national currencies.) Where would the fun be for Mark or colonial or banana-republic elites? Why would you bother issuing a money if not to create wealth out of thin air?
If Libra becomes a magnet drawing new paid activity and associated software systems to Facebook, its reserves of dollars and euro will have to grow as this new economy grows. I.E., more demand for dollars while Mark and software developers are doing all the work. If, surprise surprise, the Central Bank of Facebook issues too much Libra and confidence collapses, Mark will take all the blame. If anything, the demand for dollars will only go up, as users scramble to sell Libra for dollars and/or Libra is officially devalued, so the same dollar buys more real work. (We've seen this movie before -- it's called the 'developing world.')
Libra won't be a brave new world; it goes
way back to the old and enduring world that the top elites, if not everyone else, know well. It's as if either a new Japan or a new banana republic has arisen from the sea, ready to serve the West with its teeming millions. My quick guess is that it's more banana republic than Japan, judging by the scandals that have already plagued the company. But who knows. Holders (HODLers?) of state-free assets need not worry. Things like this happened time and again over the last century. State-free assets have endured.
P.S. Sorry if you think the Central Bank of Facebook exists, reading the above. No, officially it will be a 'consortium,' where the Facebook delegation will be 'totally separate' from Facebook itself. Right.