Page 17 - Forbes - USA (November 2019)

“With all thy getting, get understanding”

FACT & COMMENT

By Steve Forbes, Editor-in-Chief

With Libra, Zuck Is a Hero

15

MARK ZUCKERBERG TOOK a verbal In the face of so much hostility, will Libra
beating over Libra (among other things), get off the ground? Zuckerberg has made it
Facebook’s proposed cryptocurrency and clear that Facebook itself won’t move forward
payments system, when he recently testified on Libra without U.S. regulatory approval.
before the U.S. House Financial Services Since the Libra undertaking is now in the
Committee. Well aware of the low repute in hands of the new Libra Association—a group
which Facebook and other high-tech giants of companies (including Facebook) and non-
are held these days, most of the committee’s profits—and is formally independent of Face-
politicians couldn’t resist the temptation to book, Libra could still launch. But in reality,
scold and harangue Zuckerberg. Actually, without Facebook, Libra will go nowhere.
issues such as privacy and money launder- It will take considerable diplomatic finesse
ing are addressable. Facebook is already and political skill for Libra to formally clear
working with regulators on such concerns. all the obstacles it faces, which is a shame,
Nonetheless, regulatory pressures have forced a number because something like Libra is eventually going to happen,
of companies that were partnering with Facebook on this and it would be nice if the creator were an American com-
project to drop out. pany. As Zuckerberg said in his prepared testimony, “While
And this gets to the real reason the idea of Libra is so we debate these issues, the rest of the world isn’t waiting.
troubling to so many politicians, government bureaucrats, China is moving quickly to launch similar ideas in the com-
banks and economists the world over: Libra could do to ing months. Libra . . . will extend America’s financial leader-
central banks what Uber and Lyft did to the taxi cartels— ship as well as our democratic values and oversight around
bust up their monopolies, or, to coin a phrase, give them a the world. If America doesn’t innovate, our financial leader-
run for their money. ship is not guaranteed.”
Libra would be backed by a basket of currencies and gilt-
edged financial instruments, thereby overcoming the big-
gest flaw of other cryptocurrencies today—their instability. E-Cigarettes Are a Blessing
Four thousand years of experience demonstrates that gold
would be the best tie, but Libra’s basket would still be vastly YOU’D NEVER know it from all the lurid headlines in re-
superior to anything else out there. cent months about the seeming epidemic of deaths from
When Libra is up and running, a Facebook user could ob- “smoking” e-cigarettes, but vaping is actually a public-
tain a digital wallet called Calibra and could then send units health godsend for smokers. The hysteria surrounding vap-
of Libra to another Calibra wallet-holder anywhere in the ing says more about the peculiar fevers of our times than
world. The results would be instantly revolutionary. Under about the realities of puffing e-cigarettes.
our current system, it’s expensive to wire money across bor- Those deaths we hear about didn’t result from normal
ders, not to mention the hours or days it takes for funds to e-cigarettes but from tainted contents, particularly the ac-
clear. Banks would be cut out of the process entirely! tive ingredient found in cannabis. The cries for prohibiting
What a combination Libra offers: convenience and cur- vaping make no more sense than banning milk because a
rency stability. few bad characters peddled adulterated versions.
Another enormous plus is that such a digital and mobile The truth is that vaping is 95% less harmful than smok-
system would easily open up accessible banking services to ing. It lets users get nicotine without all the other carci-
the nearly 1 billion people worldwide and the 14 million in nogenic contents and carbon monoxide that come from
the U.S. who don’t have bank accounts. Amazingly—and smoking cigarettes. Vaping is far more effective in helping
unknown to most of the world—such digital banking has people quit inhaling tobacco than are all the other props,
blossomed in Kenya, where millions of people, in response including nicotine patches. Moreover, with many vaping
to the country’s lack of traditional bank branches and ser- devices, users can choose the level of nicotine they vape,
vices, do their banking, in effect, via their mobile devices. including none at all. Vaping has enabled countless num-
China is also light-years ahead of the U.S. when it comes to bers of smokers to give up cigarettes and countless others
digital transactions. not to take them up in the first place, thereby saving mil-

N O V E M B E R 3 0 , 2 0 1 9 F O R B E S . C O M