NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Facebook’s new money would be free to use and free to roam, changing hands and crossing borders costlessly or nearly costlessly. That means it could help provide cheap, basic banking services and money transfers to everyone, something that could drive down poverty rates around the world. “Libra’s mission is to enable a simple global currency and financial infrastructure that empowers billions of people,” reads the official elevator pitch. “We believe that global, open, instant, and low-cost movement of money will create immense economic opportunity and more commerce across the world.”

Global, open, instant, and low cost: It sounds undeniably great. The status quo, while global, is hardly open, instant, or low cost. Still, Libra faces major challenges in becoming a preeminent financial tool of the global poor. Silicon Valley wants to use elegant technologies to disrupt the real world, but the real world is often where elegant technology goes to get disrupted.

Photo courtesy of fsecart.