Consumer market research firm CivicScience polled nearly 2000 U.S. adults to see how much they trust Libra, Facebook’s new digital currency. 40% of respondents said they trust Libra less than Bitcoin and similar cryptocurrencies.
This isn’t surprising. Facebook doesn’t exactly have a spotless track record when it comes to security. Facebook has a trust issue, But bitcoin doesn’t.
Lawmakers don’t trust Facebook either. They made it clear they didn’t trust Facebook to run its own payment service. it’s hard to say whether trust will shift in Facebook’s favor by the time it clears the regulatory hurdles to launch.
Joe Average understands Facebook. He knows Facebook is always collecting data. And Facebook has shown over and over again that it isn’t a reliable guardian of that data.
Bitcoin, on the other hand, is easier to trust because it’s not governed by any centralized organization. It belongs to the thousands of users around the world who make up its network. So it’s not vulnerable to the corruption or security problems that come with centralized currencies.
In fact, all of the discussion around Libra is just increasing investor interest in cryptocurrencies. Multiple studies have shown bitcoin awareness is on the rise. And more and more people are investing in crypto. Coinbase added 8 million new users in the past year despite the crypto bear market. Bitcoin is gaining mainstream traction.
Facebook has power and influence (more than 2 billion users!) to bring crypto to the masses. The harder Facebook fights for Libra, the more Facebook users will learn about Libra and, of course Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. And the more likely they are to adopt decentralized cryptos like Bitcoin instead.
Sven Franssen