Facebook’s much-rumoured venture into the crypto and blockchain world has finally been officially confirmed today, with the social media titan set to launch a cryptocurrency called Libra next year.
As you would expect from a company as controversial as Facebook, social media has been whipped into a frenzy.
From outright horror to bullish sentiments all the way through to yet more digs at the #XRPArmy, social media has proven to be a humorous pastime this morning.
The roundup
Binance CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao immediately came out and bashed the project. He references the amount of data Facebook has already collected on its users and jokes about how the company will not need to conduct know your customer (KYC) or anti-money laundering (AML) checks because, well, it already has a wealth of user data.
Facebook Libra coin don't need KYC. They have so much more data on the 2 billion people. Not just name, id, address, phone number. They know your family, friends, real-time/historic location, what you like… They know you more than yourself. And now your wallet too. Best AML!
— CZ 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) June 18, 2019
Elsewhere, WhalePanda tweeted how he is feeling even more bullish on Bitcoin after reading the news on Libra, which is sure to generate hype worldwide and possibly even reach mainstream audiences.
After reading some more stuff about Libra I am even more bullish on Bitcoin.
— WhalePanda (@WhalePanda) June 18, 2019
Alistair Milne didn’t waste time airing his views with a simple four-word tweet: “Sell Libra, buy Bitcoin”.
Sell Libra, buy Bitcoin
— Alistair Milne (@alistairmilne) June 18, 2019
Popular crypto figure Anthony ‘Pomp’ Pompliano is never too far away when it comes to crypto news. He sees the value in Facebook entering the crypto space as it will help push for mainstream adoption.
The most important part of the Facebook announcement is that every user of a Facebook property will get a digital wallet eventually.
Almost 1/3 of the world will be onboarded to cryptocurrencies.
This is incredibly bullish for Bitcoin.
— Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) June 18, 2019
Then there’s Peter Todd, who sees Facebook’s latest venture as a ginormous middle finger to the government in a bid to hoard all the power for itself.
I think it's safe to say Facebook's Libra is massive tech companies giving the finger to government authority and power, claiming it for themselves and themselves only.
— Peter Todd/mempoolfullrbf=1 (@peterktodd) June 18, 2019
Crypto Michaël gave a short but sweet TED talk of sorts on his Twitter this morning.
Well,
I don't see any competition for $BTC in this new called coin 'Libra'.
Thank you for listening to my speech.
— Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) June 18, 2019
Meanwhile, Twitter user ‘Won’t Back Down’ couldn’t quite resist the temptation of calling out the #XRPArmy in his tweet.
https://twitter.com/Wbackdowncrypto/status/1140928044225327104
Finally, we have Andreas Antonopoulos, who made a joke about how the community is in the ‘bargaining’ stage of the five stages of grief for traditional financial services.
We are now officially in the "bargaining" stage of the 5 stages of grief for traditional financial services.
In order to bargain, the financial industry made a deal with the devil and got a fake blockchain in return.
— Andreas (aantonop Team) (@aantonop) June 18, 2019
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice. We do not give advice on financial products.