The Managing Director of Libra Association has argued that the Facebook-led cryptocurrency Libra could be a boon to the United Nations (UN).
Participating at a blockchain event hosted at the UN headquarters in Geneva – where the non-profit association is incorporated – Libra Association Managing Director Bertrand Perez said Libra could help the inter-governmental organization achieve its sustainable development goals (SDGs) in areas such as eliminating poverty and achieving gender equality.
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the UN for the period 2015-2030 include ending poverty in all its forms everywhere, ending hunger, achieving food security and improved nutrition, promoting sustainable agriculture, ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages, ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting life-long learning opportunities for all, achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls, and ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
Libra is planned as a stablecoin backed by a reserve of fiat currencies and government bonds. It is slated for launch in mid-to-late 2020, although Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg yesterday appeared to suggest that the timeline is not set in stone.
In the event, Perez also addressed concerns from regulators that Libra could be a threat to the national monetary policy, saying it is not creating money with the project. When Facebook announced its plans to come out with Libra, France had said that it would seek to block Libra in the EU due to the threat to its monetary sovereignty, while Germany and the U.S. had also expressed similar fears.
On this issue, Perez stated, “We are not in the area of implementing any monetary policy with the [Libra] Reserve.”
Earlier during the 73rd UN General Assembly (UNGA) this week in New York, some experts had expressed optimism that blockchain is increasingly being viewed as a tech that could help the organization achieve its SDGs. At the event, Dr. Jane Thomason from University College London’s Centre for Blockchain Technology said, “An increasing number of blockchain events at and around the UNGA this year focused on demonstrating how blockchain is continuing to contribute to the SDGs by offering up some excellent use cases.”
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