What Facebucks Can Do for the Global Poor

This month, Facebook announced it was making an investment in crypto. More specifically, the company and its partners issued a long-anticipated white paper unveiling a new digital currency, a management mechanism for it, and a platform for its development. It is called Libra, a kind of half pun: The name refers to an ancient unit of measure, as well as sounding like the French and Spanish word for “free.”

Facebook’s new money would be free to use and free to roam, changing hands and crossing borders costlessly or nearly costlessly. That means it could help provide cheap, basic banking services and money transfers to everyone, something. “We believe that global, open, instant, and low-cost movement of money will create immense economic opportunity and more commerce across the world.”