Libra competitor Celo has founded the "Celo Alliance for Prosperity". The founding members include several companies that were previously involved in the Facebook project. For this project things are now getting tight.
Libra really did not have good starting conditions. After the Libra Association, which is part of the Facebook group, announced last year that it would publish the Stable Coin Libra, there was a lot of criticism from all sides. A digital international currency in the hands of a private corporation met with a frown from the community and regulatory authorities worldwide. Libra representatives had also called on the German Bundestag to defend their project, but were not very successful.
Libra members leave the sinking ship
With Celo, another project is now being launched that could thwart the Facebook plans. The Celo Foundation has been in existence since 2017 and has been working on a smart contract platform that supports a range of stable coins on an ERC-20 basis. The Celo Network targets micro-lending services and payments and supports humanitarian giving.
On March 11th, the Celo Foundation announced the establishment of the "Alliance for Prosperity". This includes members such as Anchorage Mercy Corps, Bison Trails, Coinbase Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz, who were previously on board of the competitor Facebook.
Celo meanwhile announces his own stable coin
Celo has announced the Celo Dollar (cUSD), a stable coin that represents the value of the US dollar. It is issued in the same way as other stable coins. When users send US dollars to Celo, they are credited with the corresponding amount in cUSD. When users reclaim their US dollars, the cUSD is then burned again.
The underlying Celo blockchain uses the proof-of-stake mechanism.
Facebook's Libra still has a hard time
At the end of January it became known that Facebook's Libra would change course. Due to regulatory and public pressure, the Foundation felt compelled to change course. After that, Libra representatives began to develop different versions of the planned stable coin. But by then, the project was already struggling with serious departures. Former members like Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and eBay had already left the sinking ship. Libra had already missed the originally scheduled start date for early 2020.
