Facebook launches Libra: Social media roundup

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.

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.

Alistair Milne didn’t waste time airing his views with a simple four-word tweet: “Sell Libra, buy Bitcoin”.

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.

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.

Crypto Michaël gave a short but sweet TED talk of sorts on his Twitter this morning.

Meanwhile, Twitter user ‘Won’t Back Down’ couldn’t quite resist the temptation of calling out the #XRPArmy in his tweet.

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.