Libra is cash that lives inside your phone. You’ll be able to buy Libra through Libra wallet apps on your mobile phones or from some local grocery stores and convenience stores. You cash in your local currency like dollars and get nearly the same number of Libra coins which are represented by a wavy three-line emoji instead of the dollar symbol.
But first, you have to verify your identity with the photo ID, you’ll then be able to spend your Libra while online shopping or potentially pay for things like Uber or your subscription for Spotify since those companies have partnered with Facebook to make Libra popular.
Since it’s almost free to digitally move Libra from one account to another you won’t have to pay high credit card processing fees that can add almost four percent to your transaction amount and some Libra wallet apps and shops will give bonus discounts or free coins for signing up and paying with Libra.
You will be able to send and request money from friends like you would do with Venmo and Paypal and it’s easy to send Libra just like a message. In fact, Facebook is building its own Libra wallet app called Calibra that will live inside of Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger and its own standalone app.
You won’t have to attach your real name and identity to any of your payments but they will be public, Facebook knows it is a little bit creepy and you probably don’t want it spying on what you buy and where you spend. So Facebook setup a new company called Calibra that will store all of your financial data separate from your Facebook profile, which means Facebook can’t use your transaction data to target you with ads, reorder your newsfeed or sell your personal information to marketers.
Eventually, Facebook hopes that you’ll use Libra to pay bills, scan your wallets QR code to purchase coffee or tap your phone to buy your public transit ticket. Anytime you can cash out of Libra and get the local currency back in your bank account or handed to you at a local exchange.
But how does the Libra cryptocurrency technically function without a bunch of Blockchain buzz words? Well, Libra is coated to have a stable price and it is not controlled by Facebook.
Instead, Libra is run by the 28-members of Libra Association that it hopes will grow to a hundred members by the time it launches in the first half of 2020. Financial companies like Visa and MasterCard, apps like eBay and lyft and various other renowned companies are the members of Libra.
The invested in huge numbers to get one vote in Libra council that controls what happens to the currency, they’ll be responsible for checking to make sure the transactions are real and creating the Libra reserve. Each time you cash in a dollar that money goes into a big bank account called the Libra reserve. The Libra reserve is made up of stable international currencies.
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