John McAfee Isn’t a Huge Fan of Libra

Antivirus mogul John McAfee – who has repeatedly touted bitcoin, saying it will reach $1 million by the year 2020 – has a few harsh words for Libra.

The Facebook cryptocurrency appears to be getting on everybody’s nerves lately. Members of Congress have repeatedly taken aim at the project, saying that it could potentially open the door to money laundering and other malicious activity. They are also unclear as to how (or whether) Libra could potentially keep customers’ financial data safe and secure.

Now, it’s McAfee that’s shelling some ugly words at the cryptocurrency project. In a recent interview with The Hill, he states:

Libra is the reverse of the original intent of cryptocurrency. Rather than freeing people by giving them privacy and anonymity, it follows everything that you do. It’s taking Facebook’s vast knowledge base of every individual and increasing it to include every single financial transaction that they do. I don’t think this is in the interest of the people nor in the society.

McAfee seems to have an issue with Libra’s potentially centralized nature. The idea that cryptocurrency could somehow spy on its users and report their financial habits is a little troubling for many people. Crypto is designed to be a largely decentralized system, in which people have more control over their monetary statuses.

Libra, however, will be monitored and governed by an entire Association that at point, included conglomerates like Uber, Visa, Mastercard and PayPal. While some of these companies have since left the Libra Association, the group is still comprised of approximately 21 separate enterprises looking to have a say in what Libra customers can (and cannot) do.

During the interview, McAfee took a moment to discuss his new cryptocurrency exchange, McAfee DEX, which he says is so decentralized, people are not even required to give their name or an email address when they sign up to trade. While this may sound a bit shady at first glance, McAfee argues that this is exactly how a company needs to do things if it’s serious about bringing crypto’s primary goals to light.

Other individuals don’t necessarily have a problem with Libra itself, but believe that Facebook is the wrong company to be running the show. One such person is Joseph Lubin, the co-founder of Ethereum, who recently commented that while Libra has some outstanding properties to its name, the fact that it’s tied to Facebook could potentially tarnish its reputation.

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, has commented that Libra won’t continue without regulatory approval. During a recent hearing, he stated:

Some have suggested that we intend to circumvent regulators and regulations. We want to be clear: Facebook will not be a part of launching the Libra payments system anywhere in the world unless all U.S. regulators approve it.

The post John McAfee Isn’t a Huge Fan of Libra appeared first on Live Bitcoin News.

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