Libra is not a cryptocurrency

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In this edition of Business Day Spotlight, the focus is on Facebook’s newly announced blockchain-based digital currency and what it could mean for the world’s financial system.

Our host Mudiwa Gavaza is joined in studio by Richard de Sousa, Senior Partner at AltCoinTrader - a cryptocurrency exchange that offers buying or selling digital coins for SA Rand - to discuss this development.
"If successful Facebook will be opening the biggest bank in the world,” de Sousa says. The discussion considers the possible impact on the global financial services sector if this plan is to gain traction and succeed.

Libra is said to be a stable coin because it will be backed by assets like bank deposits and government securities. What are these assets and how will the buying and selling of these work? Further, it has been reported that Libra will be pegged to major currencies like the US Dollar and Euro. How will this be done?

The most important question of the day: Is the SA Reserve Bank (SARB) likely to allow for the use of Libra when it launches next year?

De Sousa says the SARB and other regulatory bodies around the world will have to accept Libra or risk being left behind.

Is AltCoinTrader likely to allow for trading in Libra? Is Libra really a cryptocurrency or a currency that happens to be digital?

Listen in to hear thoughts around these and other questions.

Business Day Spotlight is a MultimediaLIVE Production.
21 Jun 2019 English South Africa Business News · News

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