The world’s most dominant cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, is not satisfied with being the best in the industry. It literally wants to own it as Facebook has done with social media. The latest ambitions from the Malta based company include a localized stablecoin initiative that will rival Libra.
Facebook in the Firing Line
Not only has Facebook had to contend with a regulatory onslaught from US and global lawmakers, it is now coming under pressure from firms in the crypto industry. Binance announced the Venus project earlier today on its news portal. The project aims to be an independent regional version of Libra facilitated by the firm’s international presence.
The announcement added that the company will utilize its own public blockchain, Binance Chain, in order to ‘empower developed and developing countries to spur new currencies’. It went on to state that it intends to form new alliances and partnerships with governments and enterprises to assist the project. This is something Facebook has totally failed to achieve as it operates strictly under the guidance of master and commander, Mark Zuckerberg.
We have a vision to achieve a borderless financial system. It's not just to the moon. To #venus. https://t.co/PwWAPPvHFX
— Yi He (@heyibinance) August 19, 2019
Binance co-founder, Yi He, told news outlets;
“We believe that in the near and long term, stablecoins will progressively replace traditional fiat currencies in countries around the world, and bring a new and balanced standard of the digital economy,”
Lofty Cryptocurrency Ambitions
It is clear from this statement that the company has lofty ambitions to be in control of the creation of the world’s digital money and its supply. If that sounds familiar it is exactly the same notion that Facebook presented when it announced Libra and its desire to become the world’s biggest bank.
The firm has already launched a number of stable cryptocurrencies including a BTC-pegged stablecoin (BTCB) and the Binance BGBP stablecoin (BGBP), pegged to the British Pound.
Binance, which is on the verge of launching a US cryptocurrency exchange, appears to be angling to become the Google of crypto, a one stop shop for everything the industry can offer. This kind of negates the general principals of decentralized peer-to-peer financial freedom, as cited by Satoshi in his 2008 whitepaper, if one huge corporation controls and creates it all.
The world’s top crypto exchange may come across with benevolent intentions, but just like Facebook, it may lead to too much power if an entire supply of global stablecoins are produced on a blockchain developed by one company.
Libra faced a lot of opposition for good reason and while Binance is nowhere near Facebook yet in terms of global reach and dominance, it clearly aims to achieve such a position.
Image from Shutterstock