-Facebook's new digital currency
has the tech and finance world's buzzing.
Facebook says Libra is intended to provide financial services
to the billions of people around the world
who don't have access to traditional banking.
It works like this.
Libra can be kept in a digital wallet available
in Messenger and WhatsApp, as well as a stand-alone app.
It'll run on Facebook's own version
of blockchain technology, a type of encrypted network
used by cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
And unlike volatile Bitcoin,
the value of Libra will be backed
by a financial reserve for added stability.
Facebook's newly set up subsidiary, Calibra,
will handle the transactions,
and in a bid to reassure users concerned about privacy,
Facebook says financial information will be handled
separately from social-network data.
-And we heard people loud and clear.
They don't want their financial data
commingled with their social data,
and they certainly don't want their financial data
being used for ad targeting and all these things,
and so that's what we're doing.
Basically, Facebook, Inc.
will not have access to financial data
that you'll have inside of Calibra.
-Facebook won't have full control of Libra.
It's just one member of the Libra Association,
made up of 28 founding partners,
which include Visa, PayPal, and Spotify, among others.
Libra is slated to officially launch in early 2020.