When the Diem Association, formally known as the Libra Association, first made news I was extremely shocked at the announcement as a whole. I struggled to wrap my head around the idea that a name change could allow them to launch their token in January 2021. How was Diem going to succeed where Libra had failed I thought. How was a rename going to fix all of the issues that had faced Libra? Libra had tried and failed multiple times to get the regulatory approval that they needed to launch. How was it I thought that by renaming themselves could they then get said approval?
After a lot of sleuthing and listening to different sources, I started to piece together what they were trying to pull off. The Libra was initially going to be pegged to a basket of currency. Well, this would require all sorts of government approvals because of all the different governments whose currencies they wanted to use. Then they would further have to figure out how they were going to weigh these different currencies against each other and with the world as it currently is in a COVID-19 world it was not something that would be possible. Diem thus far has different from Libra by abandoning the initial plan of a basket of currencies to back the Diem Dollar, what they have decided to name their token, and will instead back it with just the United States Dollar. By doing this they will face significantly fewer hurdles to launch the token however hurdles will of course still be faced.
While Diem has tried to distance itself from Facebook it really is not doing so at all. The technology is still the same the wallet that will initially work on the blockchain will be created by and run by Facebook. This will give Facebook even more information about people than whatever they have already gathered. It will also give Facebook a new way to generate cash and with blockchain adaptation growing as it is this wallet and support services could be a huge future cash cow for Facebook.
What this name change appears to have done is given Diem a "clean" slate since Libra was the source of so much controversy. At the time of Libra's announcement, Facebook was also catching a ton of heat for selling users' information and just how they ran their business in general. Now that this has died down publically the rename and target to launch soon from Facebook and Diem's point of view makes sense. When you add in that there is an administration change occurring in January to they are playing it pretty smart trying to sneak this on through.
The underlying issues though are still there and have not changed. Facebook again has played a massive role in this last election and continues to do so especially with the everchanging news about COVID. Facebook alone holds a ton of power with its media empire and they are working to accumulate more and more by gaining intel on people's finances. The Facebook marketplace was the first step in this and has been a massive success for Facebook the blockchain development/business is following a natural progression.
A lot of people are scared of big government and now the idea of big corporations is coming into view. As a society, we need to be aware of how much power we are putting into the hands of a single business. This is not even a government we are talking about but a for-profit business. It is a pretty scary thing to think about and reminds me a lot of the book "The Big Clock" by Kenneth Fearing. Monopoly laws exist for a reason and it is becoming more and more apparent that they will probably soon come into play for some of these companies and especially one like Facebook with the power that they have.
