Decode Libra Blockchain - Linchpin of Facebook's Libra Cryptocurrency - Part II Stablecoin and Libra

Thanks everyone for the comments. Libra is dead, long live Libra.

Demystify Zero Knowledge and ZK-SNARKs - Ethereum privacy and scalability solution

Coming soon.

Decode Libra Blockchain - Linchpin of Facebook's Libra Cryptocurrency - Part I

Social media giant Facebook announced its cryptocurrency ambition in Jun 2019 and its plan to issue a stableoin called Facebook libra.  

According to Libra’s white paper, Facebook thinks now is the time to create a new kind of digital currency built on the foundation of blockchain technology. The mission for Libra is a simple global currency and financial infrastructure that empowers billions of people. 

The white paper further details three key components of Libra:

1. Libra blockchain which is secure, scalable and reliable; 
2. Libra Stablecoin which It is backed by a reserve of assets, may be pegged with major fiat currencies
3. Libra Association established to ensure governance and evolve the ecosystem. 

Since then, supporters of such financial instrument have been applauding Facebook’s initiative. There are more than 20 members joined Libra association. Obviously, there are more challenges ahead due to regulatory restrictions. According to Reuters, G20 agreed to set strict regulations on cryptocurrencies such as Facebook’s Libra, warning that issuance of such stablecoins should not be allowed until various global risks they pose have been addressed. The risks, being constantly cited, include in particular those related to money laundering, illicit finance, and consumer and investor protection.

In my co-authored blockchain book, Learn Ethereum: Build your own decentralized applications with Ethereum and smart contracts, we explained in details how bitcoin and Ethereum blockchain work and explored how to develop your own cryptocurrency. We also discussed the concept of stablecoins and how one of the popular stablecoins, MakerDao DAI, works. It is my intention to do the same to introduce Facebook Libra.

In this blog series, we will explore key concepts in Facebook Libra and how it works. The topics will include:

• What is a stablecoin, and how Libra stablecoin works
• Libra blockchain, and its key difference from bitcoin and ethereum 
• MOVE programming language, the smart contract language for Libra 
• How Libra wallet, Callibra, works

It certainly will help me to get more understanding about blockchain and cryptocurrency, and I hope it can help you too. Stay tuned.

This is my first blog! Hooray, I finally got my blogs started.

I intend to write blogs to share my thoughts, views and understanding about blockchain ecosystems. The following areas may be covered on my blogs:

• Latest development in Blockchain, Ethereum, especially on Ethereum 2.0 development. 
• Deep research on Ethereum layer 1 layer 2 scalability solutions.
• Interoperability between different blockchains
• New development in Blockchain consensus mechanism
• Interesting aspects regarding privacy solutions, ZK-Snarks, MPC 
• Convergence of blockchain, AI/ML, and IoT
• Anything which may need further clarification on the topics from my co-authored Ethereum book.

I have a great interest in how blockchain is disrupting finance and payment, so I may cover the following: 

• Making sense of cryptoeconomics - bitcoin, ether, libra
• DApps - DeFi
• Tokenization
• ICO, STO, IEO, Stablecoins

Finally,  to wear my developer hat, I want to explore business use cases of blockchain technology in the enterprise:

• Enterprise blockchain - Enterprise Ethereum, Hyperledger family, R3/CORDA, Quorum
• Enterprise blockchain industry use cases
• Thoughts how enterprise may start blockchain journey.

I try my best to write as much as possible as times allow. All thoughts expressed here are my personal view of things in Blockchain ecosystem. Those are mainly from my own reading and learning experience. Some may be wrong, and some may be inaccurate, I would welcome all feedback and comments.