Editor | Lu Xiaoming

Editor | Lu Xiaoming

At 17:00 Beijing time today, the official website of Libra, the cryptocurrency project of the Internet social giant Facebook (stock code: FB.NASDAQ), was launched and released at the same timeLibra project white paper(click to view)。

According to the white paper, Libra's mission is to build a simple, borderless currency and financial infrastructure that serves billions of people.

As of press time, Facebook’s stock price was temporarily at $189.01, an increase of 4.24% today. Facebook shares are up more than 40% this year.

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1. Stablecoins that are not “pegged” to a single currency

As mentioned in the white paper, the native token of the Libra blockchain is called "Libra", which is a stable digital cryptocurrency.

Users who hold Libra can exchange their Libra for local currency according to the exchange rate.

However, Facebook emphasized that Libra is not "pegged" to a single currency. "As the value of the underlying asset fluctuates, the value of Libra denominated in any local currency may also fluctuate."

Each newly created Libra cryptocurrency is backed by a corresponding basket of bank deposits and short-term government bonds in the Libra Reserve.

There are two sources of reserves: one is from early Libra investors, and the other is Libra users. After obtaining legal currency, in order to preserve capital value, the association will only invest in bonds issued by stable governments that are unlikely to default and are unlikely to experience high inflation; in addition, the association will invest in multi-national government bonds to reduce risks.

However, Facebook did not announce the specific amount of reserve assets, reserve types, reserve addresses and custody institutions.

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2. There are still 71 vacancies in the Libra Association

Libra's highest authority is the Libra Association.

According to the white paper, the Libra Association is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and is an independent non-profit membership organization. Switzerland has always held a neutral attitude towards the global market. In this city with a population of only 200,000, more than 200 headquarters of international organizations have settled there. Naturally, Geneva is also open to blockchain technology.

The Libra Association is managed by the Libra Association Council, which consists of a representative appointed by each validator node. The validator nodes of the Libra Association at this stage are 29 partners from diverse backgrounds:

• Payment industry: Mastercard, PayPal, PayU (Naspers' fintech arm), Stripe, Visa;

• Technology and trading platforms: Booking Holdings, eBay, Facebook/Calibra, Farfetch, Lyft, MercadoPago, SpotifyAB, Uber Technologies, Inc.;

• Telecommunications: Iliad, Vodafone Group;

• Blockchain Industry: Anchorage, Bison Trails, Coinbase, Inc., Xapo Holdings Limited;

• Venture capital: Andreessen Horowitz, Breakthrough Initiatives, Ribbit Capital, Thrive Capital, Union Square Ventures;

• Nonprofits, multilateral organizations, and academic institutions: Creative Destruction Lab, Kiva, Mercy Corps, Women's WorldBanking.

The white paper stipulates that all decisions will be made through the council, and major policy or technical decisions require two-thirds of the members to vote and agree, which is the absolute majority of network members required in the BFT consensus agreement.

As for the affairs that the Libra Association is responsible for, the white paper shows that the Libra Association will:

• Assist in the operation of the Libra blockchain, including in the coming months, the association will collect community feedback on the Libra blockchain prototype; build well-documented APIs and libraries to enable user interaction with the Libra blockchain ; using an open-source approach to create a framework for the development of the collaborative technology behind the Libra Blockchain. We will establish procedures in place for discussing and reviewing changes to the underlying protocols and software of the blockchain.

• Coordinate various stakeholders (validator nodes of the network) to reach consensus in the process of promoting and expanding the network;

• While managing reserve assets, only the Libra Association can manufacture (mint) and destroy (burn) Libra. Of course, the Libra Association has the final decision-making power for Libra.

An important goal of the Libra Association is to gradually increase the degree of decentralization.

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3. Libra will eventually become a permissionless blockchain

Blockchains are divided into "permissioned blockchains" and "non-permissioned blockchains", which are determined based on whether an entity can access the blockchain platform as a validator node. In a "permissioned blockchain", entities run validator nodes by granting permission; in a "permissionless blockchain", any entity that meets the technical requirements can run a validator node.

As mentioned in the white paper, Libra will start as a permissioned blockchain and transition to a non-permissioned one. The transition is being undertaken by the Libra Association and will begin within five years of the public launch of the Libra Blockchain and Ecosystem.

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4. Libra's original Move language

Adopt and iteratively improve the widely adopted blockchain data structure.

• Design and use the Move programming language.

• Use Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) consensus mechanism.

• Adopt and iteratively improve the widely adopted blockchain data structure.

"Move" is a new programming language for implementing custom transaction logic and "smart contracts" in the Libra blockchain; Move is designed to prevent digital assets from being copied; the Move language can automatically verify that transactions meet certain requirements. property; Move can help keep the Libra Blockchain secure. Facebook expects to open up the ability to create contracts to developers after some time.

The Libra blockchain adopts the BFT mechanism based on the LibraBFT consensus protocol to achieve that all verifier nodes agree on the transactions to be executed and their execution order. This approach builds trust in the network because the BFT consensus protocol is designed to ensure that the network will function properly even if some validator nodes (up to a third of the network) are compromised or malfunction.

Data in the Libra blockchain is protected by a Merkle tree, and any changes to existing data can be detected. Additionally, the Libra Blockchain is a single data structure that records transaction history and state over time. This implementation simplifies the workload for applications accessing the blockchain, allowing them to read any data from any point in time and verify the integrity of that data using a unified framework.

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5. Which partners is Libra recruiting?

According to the white paper, the Libra Association is recruiting a managing director (similar to a chairman), who will then form the association's executive team.

In addition, the Libra Association is broadly recruiting for a variety of support roles: founders of validator nodes; people/organizations who raise funds to jump-start the ecosystem; those who issue such incentive bonuses); those who establish social impact funding programs in the name of the association.

In this final plan, the Libra Association said it will select social impact partners and work with them to establish a social impact advisory committee and develop a social impact plan.