The Libra Association will rebrand the Libra project to distance itself from Facebook’s original concept. Stablecoin will be renamed Diem.
Libra Association members reported that Diem is Latin for “day”. The name symbolizes a fresh start and the stablecoin’s readiness to launch next year. Today the Association consists of 27 members.
The organization has already formed a team of leaders. Dahlia Malkhi will be Chief Technology Officer, Christy Clark will be Head of Human Resources, Steve Bunnell will be Chief Legal Officer, and Kiran Raj will be Executive Vice President. President of Development and Innovation and Deputy General Counsel. Previously, Stuart Levey became CEO of the Libra Association, James Emmett became Managing Director, Sterling Daines became Chief Compliance Officer, Ian Jenkins became CFO. and the General Counsel is Saumya Bhavsar.
After Facebook introduced the Libra stablecoin, it sparked an outcry from regulators who saw Libra as a threat to the traditional banking industry. Regulators have demanded an end to all Libra-related developments until lawmakers can develop appropriate regulation and ensure that there are no risks to financial stability.
In April, Libra developers redesigned the project structure. According to the updated whitepaper, the value of the underlying LBR cryptocurrency will be calculated based on a whole basket of stablecoins pegged to fiat currencies. Levy believes that thanks to these changes and the “distance” from Facebook, which is not a member of the Association, regulators are gradually beginning to change their attitude towards the project.
According to the updated White Paper, Facebook will play a minor role in project management. In the original document, released in June 2019, Facebook was mentioned six times. In addition, that document indicated that Facebook will retain its leadership role in the project until 2019.
“We believe that regulators welcome independent associations that can make their own decisions. We have a strong team of project leaders. Partly for this reason, we decided to change the name of Libra to Diem. Another reason for the name change is that the early version of the project received stiff opposition from regulators, ”Levy said.
He announced that the first stablecoin called “Diem Dollar” will be pegged to the US dollar. The Diem Dollar will be issued after receiving a license from the Swiss Financial Markets Authority (FINMA), so Levy did not give a specific timeline for the coin’s launch. Initially, Libra’s management planned to submit the project in the first half of 2020, but due to problems with regulators, this was not possible.
Diem will comply with international regulations, including those of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), to protect users, Levy said. Levy added that the organization liaises with global regulators on how widely each coin can circulate, and what fiat currency it can be pegged to. Further actions of the Libra Association will depend on a number of factors, including the favor of the regulators.
The developers said that at the technical level, the project is already ready for launch, but they continue to test it and implement improvements. Despite the changes and rebranding, the project will continue to operate on the blockchain. First of all, Diem will be used for international transfers, as well as for payment for goods and services. Levy does not see the need to launch Diem coin at once with the support of a whole basket of stablecoins, but does not exclude this possibility in the future.
“We are not going to launch a multicurrency stablecoin, as we first plan to launch stablecoins, each of which will be backed by a certain currency. This is the advantage of programmable money, where you can create a multi-currency stablecoin with different stablecoins pegged to different fiat currencies. ”
Recall that a few months ago, Governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey urged regulators to unite to develop an international regulatory framework for the effective regulation of stablecoins.
