Today in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, the director and COO of the Libra Association Bertrand Perez explained the functioning of the stablecoin created by Facebook.
Interviewed by Jamie D’Alessandro and nine other correspondents from nine European newspapers, the former Senior Director of the Payments Engineering section of PayPal focuses on the high costs of the so-called remittances, that is, the money that is sent from one country to another, especially by immigrants who send part of their earnings home.
Perez reveals that commissions on this type of service are usually 7%, with peaks of 12%. Approximately $600 billion is moved in this manner every year, using technology that is half a century old.
In addition, Perez also reveals that about a third of the world’s population, amounting to 1.7 billion people, is currently without a bank account (the so-called “unbanked”), but among these as many as one billion possess a smartphone.
In this regard, Perez reveals that the commissions with Libra will be so low that it will be convenient to carry out transactions with very small amounts. This will not only help immigrants who send part of their earnings to their countries of origin but will also help all those businesses that need micro-payments, such as Iliad or Spotify, mentioned by the interviewer and already members of the association.
He adds that Libra will have its own wallets, which can also be used from within platforms such as Facebook, eBay or Uber, or companies that have joined the Libra Association.
This implies that it will be possible to use the stablecoin even without using tools from Facebook, the company that launched the project. It will obviously also be available on WhatsApp.
He also confirms that, according to him, Libra will not replace the euro or the dollar and that the association has been officially recognised in Switzerland as a payment platform.
Finally, he emphasizes the difference with bitcoin, defined as volatile and with a limited number of transactions, while Libra is designed to be stable and global.
What Perez has stated in this interview was already well known, but it appears that what has changed lately is mainly the attitude towards the regulators and not so much the market.
Statements like these seem to really aim to throw water on the fire and propose the project as something that can bring real benefits to users. The fact that they have taken the time until the second half of next year to launch the stablecoin on the market really suggests that they are at least willing to clarify the many doubts that still affect the actual progress of the project.
