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It seems the one market that is gaining some positivity from the Middle East tension is Bitcoin as the price went up by almost 10 per cent. General Manager for Luno Africa, Marius Reitz joins CNBC Africa on Crypto predictions for 2020 and more.

Bitcoin prices expected to remain stable despite ongoing Middle East tensions

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/kate-rooney/">Kate Rooney</a> <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/Kr00ney" target="_blank">@KR00NEY</a> 





KEY POINTS



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>The Square and Twitter CEO says he plans on spending up to six months in Africa and that “Africa will define the future.”</li><li>Microsoft, Facebook and Google are all involved in the continent with accelerator programs — Visa, Mastercard and Salesforce are making venture investments in African start-ups.</li><li>Early Facebook investor Jim Breyer says Africa “presents some fundamental leapfrog opportunities” that have been unlocked through the rise in mobile phones and other platforms.</li></ul>



Jack Dorsey is in good company when it comes to Africa.



The CEO of <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=TWTR">Twitter</a> and <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=SQ">Square</a> <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/02/jack-dorseys-move-to-africa-raises-questions-for-investors.html">announced</a> in November that he would spend up to six months in the continent in 2020, with few specifics. But he’s one of dozens of U.S. CEOs and global venture capital investors seeing potential for technology disruption — and returns — throughout the continent.



“We’re seeing a lot of the investment opportunity and growth happening in the tech sector,” said Witney Schneidman, a Brookings fellow with the Africa Growth Initiative and former deputy secretary of state Clinton administration.



“Jack Dorsey is in the right place at the right time and investing the appropriate amount of time to begin to understand the complexity of the African market.”



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<a href="https://twitter.com/jack">jack&nbsp;✔@jack</a><a href="https://twitter.com/jack/status/1199774792917929984"></a>



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Sad to be leaving the continent…for now. Africa will define the future (especially the bitcoin one!). Not sure where yet, but I’ll be living here for 3-6 months mid 2020. Grateful I was able to experience a small part. 



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Africa has a young and booming population, which Schneidman said makes it a “natural market for any tech entrepreneur.” The 54 countries in Africa have a combined population of 1.3 billion people with an average age of 19, and more than half of global population growth over the next 30 years will happen there, according to a recent UN report. Africa also has the largest population of underbanked and unbanked people in the world, making it appealing for companies in financial tech and payments.



Jim Breyer, an early Facebook investor and partner at Accel Partners, likened the investment opportunity to China in the early 2000s. Breyer, who’s now the founder of Breyer Capital and Co-Chairman of IDG Capital based in Beijing, said promising businesses in Africa haven’t necessarily invented something new — they’re finding “novel ways to leverage technology.”



“Africa similarly presents some fundamental leapfrog opportunities that have been unlocked through the use of mobile phones and other technology platforms,” said Breyer. “We’re seeing some of the smartest individuals from top academic institutions in the U.S. and elsewhere return to the African continent, thereby contributing to a growing talent pool of entrepreneurs and developers.”



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Venture bets</h2>



Major tech companies are taking notice and have launched start-up accelerator program to help get more companies off the ground.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=MSFT" class="">Microsoft</a>&nbsp;said in May that it will spend $100 million over five years on its first African development center, starting in Kenya and Nigeria.&nbsp;<a href="https://cchubnigeria.com/fbstart/" class="" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Facebook</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=GOOGL" class="">Google</a>&nbsp;both have African accelerator&nbsp;<a href="https://developers.google.com/community/launchpad/accelerators" class="" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">programs</a>&nbsp;for local start-ups.



Chinese conglomerate Alibaba has a similar&nbsp;<a href="https://www.alibabacloud.com/startup" class="" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">program</a>. In December, Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma published an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/05/opinion/jack-ma-africa-digital-economy.html" class="" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">op-ed</a>&nbsp;in the New York Times outlining the “next digital revolution” driven by African entrepreneurs.



Some companies are going the venture capital route and placing strategic investments in African start-ups. Visa, for example, announced a 20% stake in African consumer-payments product PalmPay.



Online payment processor Flutterwave, based in Lagos and San Francisco, is another popular bet. It has partnerships with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=UBER" class="">Uber</a>&nbsp;and Alipay and has raised money from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=CRM" class="">Salesforce</a>&nbsp;Ventures, Mastercard, and Google Developers Launchpad, among others, according to Pitchbook.



Breyer backed Ghanian healthcare company mPharma in 2017, which earlier this year acquired Kenya’s second-largest pharmacy chain. He has also backed e-commerce company Sokowatch, Africa Health Holdings, Jetstream, and Apollo Agriculture.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Infrastructure opportunity</h2>



Part of the opportunity is a lack of existing, legacy systems. Ben Lynett, another early investor in Sokowatch and founder of Lynett Capital, said that’s often an opportunity, not an obstacle.



“What we’re now seeing is missing infrastructure that tech can solve,” said Lynett, who began investing in Africa in 2016. “You have a lack of infrastructure and a potential leap-frog effect where things haven’t been build, but 2019 technology can come in and figure out what makes sense and apply it in a unique way.”



Valuations are also more “reasonable,” Lynett said. Of the more than 400 start-ups worth $1 billion or more only two are based in Africa, according to CB Insights.



Chinese venture investors have been upping their bets in the region. Two Nigerian fintech firms — Opay and PalmPay — raised more than $220 million from Chinese venture capital investors in the fourth quarter of 2019.



With those opportunities come headwinds. Lynett said scaling and finding enough technology-focused talent can be a challenge. Brookings’ Schneidman said knowing the rules and “ensuring the rules are consistent” across the 54 countries in Africa “can be a challenge” as well as finding local partners in that market can also be a headwind. But as valuations skyrocket in the U.S., there may be increased interest abroad.



“The venture capital world and Africa are still working hard to find each other,” he said. “The returns aren’t what investors are used to in the U.S. and Western Europe so we don’t see a flood at this point — but we do see people who understand the market.”



This article first appeared on CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/30/jack-dorsey-follows-tech-companies-investors-in-africa-interest.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/30/jack-dorsey-follows-tech-companies-investors-in-africa-interest.html</a> and is republished with its permission

Why Twitter’s co-founder Jack Dorsey and other major tech figures are suddenly interested in Africa

By David S. Levin, writer from New York 



For what it’s worth, I’m not an alarmist. I write what I see in an attempt to make sense of the bedlam swirling all around us. But frankly, a lot of what’s happening lately is actually pretty damn alarming. Today, there are vital freedoms like privacy that are under attack from anxious governments all over that see it as a threat to their dominion and sovereignty. And they’re using bleeding-edge technology as their weapon of choice. 



Thanks to a burgeoning electronic surveillance
industry, a grim high-tech future is slowly unfolding that could’ve been
written by George Orwell himself. But, instead, it’s being written by
technocrats and politicians. And you can bet your last bitcoin that if Big
Brother isn’t snooping around your country yet, they will be soon enough. 



Enter China. The 800-pound dystopian
gorilla in the room and the poster child for mass public surveillance gone mad.
To the Chinese, privacy is the enemy of the state. So, the government, not known
for its delicate touch, rolled-out the Skynet Project and put up 200 million
CCTV cameras across the country that feed directly into local and regional law
enforcement agencies. That basically works out to one camera for every seven
people there; watching, identifying, recording and analysing every move they
make. 



Cleverly wrapped in the guise of “public
safety,” the literal Chinese translation of the word Skynet is “Tianwang” which
is part of an idiom that means “justice is always done.” This way, none of
China’s 1.4 billion citizens will ever have to think too hard about who’s in
charge. 



But that’s just the prologue. By some
estimates, they’re expected to reach a staggering 625 million CCTV cameras, all
outfitted with artificial intelligence and video analytics, within just a few
years. And there are some projections showing numbers that are even higher. The
saying “you can run but you can’t hide” has taken on an entirely new meaning
there. 



In today’s China, everyone’s a suspect.



And here’s the punchline.
Despite all the moral outrage about this in the West, not to mention the
fallout from Donald Trump’s punitive trade war with China, much of the
technology used there is still developed and sold by top American tech
companies like Hewlett Packard, IBM, Microsoft, Intel, and Seagate
Technologies. And not just to the Chinese. Silicon Valley companies have an
active presence in 32 countries around the world.



Last year, the worldwide
market for video surveillance stood at $36.89bn of which China accounted for
nearly $18 billion. And according to IHS Markit, by the end of 2021 the number
of surveillance cameras deployed worldwide is expected to top one billion. 



Suffice it to say, Big Tech
is all in on the global surveillance boom. No matter who buys it. 



China’s President, Xi Jinping, is
busily building a digital authoritarian empire in his own image. And just to be
sure he’s around long enough to see the completion of his grand masterpiece, he
removed term-limits to China’s constitution and is now president for life. Nice
touch.



His cutting-edge surveillance state is
tracking China’s resident’s day and night with sophisticated facial recognition
technology, zeroing in on criminals and people whose
“tendencies” go against the state. With hundreds of citizens displayed in a
single video frame, cameras place thin yellow squares around people’s faces
with unique identifying numbers on top as they walk the streets in cities like
Beijing or Qingdao. Fed into massive government databases, complex algorithms
crunch and analyse the images, tracking and identifying people who might be
considered suspicious for any number of reasons and then notifying law
enforcement or other agencies. 



In Xinjiang
recently, which is a semi-autonomous, largely Muslim region in northwestern
China, their provincial surveillance system recently identified 24,000
suspicious persons in a single week using facial recognition technology. Of
those, 15,000 were sent to re-education camps to be “standardized.” Clearly,
the Chinese have figured out that combining Mao Zedong-style repression with
unrelenting electronic surveillance is the perfect digital stick to regulate
the masses. 



But now, they’re getting really creative.
They’re using their sprawling web of closed-circuit cameras, database
technology and artificial intelligence to feed directly into a scoring system
that assigns “social credit scores” to each of their citizens. It is designed
to rate their trustworthiness and “public desirability” by analyzing their
social behavior and then determining what they can do, what they can buy, and
even if they can travel. 



And as part of a broader
surveillance push, and in the name of national security, they’re even
“encouraging” people to use <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_app">mobile phone apps</a>
developed by the government that allow civilians
to report violations against the state. In the old days, it was just called
ratting out your friends and neighbors. Now, thankfully, like everything else
these days, there’s an app for that.



In China, Big Brother has arrived with a bang.
Call it Mao 2.0&nbsp;&nbsp; 



So, here’s the question. How
long will it be until other governments start pushing the line like the Chinese
have? Try imagining this in the U.S. or the UK.
Maybe in Brazil or Canada. “That would never happen here” you’re probably
thinking to yourself.&nbsp; Well, don’t think
too hard. Because much of the technology being used in China is already in use
in other countries around the world. Just not quite in the same way. At least
not yet.



The West has been watching
the Chinese develop their digital web since they first laid out the blueprints
for the wholesale surveillance of its citizenry. The United States already has
over 60 million CCTV cameras feeding into law enforcement around the country.
In the UK, there are an estimated 6 million of them. According to some
estimates, the average Londoner is caught on camera roughly 300 times a day. And
in the U.S., cities like Washington, Orlando and Denver are openly testing
facial recognition and other AI technologies in their policing. As expected, the
lawsuits are flying fast and furious.&nbsp; 



What’s happening in China today
should be viewed as a cautionary tale for the U.S. and other democracies. Mass electronic
surveillance has serious implications for the way urban life will play out in
the decades ahead. And there is nothing the Chinese are doing that couldn’t be implemented
anywhere else given the right, or more accurately, the wrong political conditions.




If this potential dire future
isn’t halted through the use of a strong judicial system and hardened grass-
roots activism, what’s happening in China today could be a preview of the way
order is established and maintained in the 21st century.



And George Orwell could wind
up being even be more prophetic than any of us ever dreamed.

Op-ed: Why China’s video surveillance should be viewed as a cautionary tale for democracies around the world

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The City of Johannesburg was hit by a breach in its network on Thursday evening after being hit with a bitcoin ransom. The hackers reportedly want payment of 4 bitcoins by Monday 5pm or else they will make public the COJ&#8217;s data on to the internet. Joining CNBC Africa for more is Nathalie Schooling, CEO of Nlighten.

City of Johannesburg website hacked

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Bitcoin has fallen by over 17 per cent since the beginning of September. Joining CNBC Africa to unpack what&#8217;s behind its current weakness is Marius Reitz, Luno&#8217;s General Manager for Africa.

Bitcoin falls almost 20% in September – What’s behind the sharp decline?

WEF Africa Debate: 10-Years of Cryptocurrency – What’s Next?

Crypto Trader: Is Bitcoin a viable hedge amid global slowdown?

Crypto Trader: Is Bitcoin the new gold?

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/ryan-browne/">Ryan Browne</a> 



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=FB" class="">Facebook</a>&nbsp;has made headlines of late with its plans to create a cryptocurrency.



The social media company has been&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/17/facebook-currency-chief-questioned-at-house-financial-services-hearing.html" class="">forced to defend the project</a>&nbsp;on Capitol Hill, amid regulatory concerns around data privacy and potential illegal usage, while the G-7 has warned it poses “serious” legal risks.



It’s an experiment in monetary systems for the digital age, and has inevitably been compared to popular cryptocurrencies like&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=BTC=" class="">bitcoin</a>. However, many experts question whether Libra can even be called a cryptocurrency.



Other than the fact that they both come with a white paper and are referred to as cryptocurrencies, Libra and bitcoin are actually very different. Here’s a rundown of the key differences between the two.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Different technology</h2>



One of the biggest differences lies in the underlying technology behind both currencies.



With bitcoin, transactions are recorded anonymously on a public ledger known as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/18/blockchain-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-work.html" class="">the blockchain</a>. It’s essentially a database maintained by a network of computers, on which transactions are secured in such a way that makes it virtually impossible to tamper with.



Libra also uses a form of blockchain, or distributed ledger technology. But unlike bitcoin, Libra’s blockchain is permissioned —&nbsp;<a href="https://libra.org/en-US/permissionless-blockchain/#overview" class="">at least for now</a>&nbsp;— meaning that transactions can only be added to it by a group of trusted parties.



That’s where the Libra Association, a Switzerland-based consortium of companies including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=V" class="">Visa</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=UBER" class="">Uber</a>, comes in. Each of the nonprofit organization’s members have invested a minimum of $10 million into the project.



“Libra will create a centralized structure governed by an unelected ‘association’ composed exclusively of large institutions who have purchased their voting rights,” said Ido Sadeh Man, founder and president of the Saga Foundation, a cryptocurrency firm that counts&nbsp;<a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=JPM">J.P. Morgan</a>&nbsp;Chairman Jacob Frenkel as an advisor.



It’s different to bitcoin’s network, which can be accessed and maintained by anyone with decent enough hardware and access to the internet.



“Cryptocurrencies are defined by their lack of reliance on trusted intermediaries,” Peter Van Valkenburgh, director of research at the cryptocurrency policy think-tank Coin Center, said in a&nbsp;<a href="https://coincenter.org/entry/the-differences-between-bitcoin-and-libra-should-matter-to-policymakers" class="">recent blog post</a>.



“We believe that Libra is not a cryptocurrency because of its use of a permissioned ledger and its reliance on a trusted issuer to hold and manage a fund of assets that back the currency.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Different use cases</h2>



Bitcoin’s white paper describes the virtual currency as a peer-to-peer payment system, allowing people to exchange money without going through a bank.



It’s commonly used today as a form of investment, with the term “HODL” being a common slang phrase in the industry to describe buying and staying invested in the cryptocurrency for the long term. It’s frequently been referred to as “<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/19/bitcoins-digital-gold-but-facebooks-libra-is-the-digital-dollar.html" class="">digital gold</a>. ”



Libra’s primary purpose is to be used in cross-border payments and money transfers. The currency is tied to a basket of government-backed currencies and other assets, to avoid the volatile swings often seen in cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=ETH=" class="">ether</a>.



Referred to by many in the industry as a “stablecoin,” Libra is aimed at maintaining a stable value. David Marcus, the Facebook executive leading the blockchain initiative, has previously said it will work “more like a traditional currency” than a cryptocurrency.



“Bitcoin and Facebook’s Libra both represent stages in the evolution of currency but in starkly different ways,” Charles Hayter, co-founder and CEO of digital currency comparison platform CryptoCompare, told CNBC.



“Bitcoin is permissionless, fully decentralized, deflationary and volatile. Libra is permissioned, more centralized, governed by supply and demand and pegged to fiat currencies.”



What Hayter means by “governed by supply and demand” is that Facebook and its partner companies can adjust the supply to match a quantity of other assets held in reserve, effectively maintaining a stable price even when demand changes.



Bitcoin on the other hand has a fixed supply. The total number of bitcoins that will ever be minted is “hard-capped” at 21 million.



“Bitcoin supply is fixed and cannot react to the market’s demand,” the Saga Foundation’s Sadeh Man said. “Libras are created or burned when one of Libra’s authorized resellers deposit or withdraw money from its reserve.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Different regulatory questions</h2>



Facebook’s currency has taken the spotlight when it comes to talk of regulating cryptocurrencies. But some worry the company’s blockchain project could be lumped in with other digital assets by regulators.



That would be problematic given the difference between Libra and a digital currency like bitcoin. Whereas bitcoin rules out the need for financial intermediaries, Libra’s model is reliant on the entities which form the Libra Association, Coin Center’s Van Valkenburgh said.



“A system without intermediaries is a system without intermediary risk, and thus no need for regulation aimed at safeguarding against the types of risk presented by intermediaries,” he said.



The Libra Association currently consists of 28 founding members, according to the Libra white paper, and is hoping to reach 100 members by the time the currency launches. The token is slated for launch in the first half of 2020.



Though bitcoin’s network involves so-called “miners” who record transactions, it wouldn’t make sense to regulated them as they aren’t trusted custodians of user funds, Van Valkenburgh said. Cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets on the other hand do require regulatory oversight, he added.



Questions around how Libra would fit into existing financial regulations were raised at Wednesday’s hearing. Facebook’s Marcus was grilled on whether Libra could be considered a financial security, which he said could not be the case. But Marcus said it could possibly be considered a commodity.



Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/06/sec-chairman-clayton-says-agency-wont-change-definition-of-a-security.html" class="">last year told CNBC</a>&nbsp;that cryptocurrencies like bitcoin could not be viewed as securities. Cryptocurrencies are “replacements for sovereign currencies” like the dollar and the euro, he said.



Regardless, if Facebook and its partners do manage to overcome the regulatory hurdles that have accompanied Libra, the currency “will undoubtedly have an enormous impact on the global economy — possibly eclipsing that of bitcoin,” CryptoCompare’s Hayter said.



For Andy Bryant, chief operating officer of cryptocurrency exchange bitFlyer’s European business, Libra could start to convince people there are “other ways” of storing value than using fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar. “If that’s all that Libra achieves, I think it will be a great step forward,” he said.



This article first appeared on CNBC&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/19/bitcoin-vs-libra-how-facebooks-cryptocurrency-is-different.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/19/bitcoin-vs-libra-how-facebooks-cryptocurrency-is-different.html</a>&nbsp;and is republished with its permission.

Bitcoin vs Libra: Here are the key differences between the two cryptocurrencies

Crypto Trader: Highlights from Bitcoin Conference 2019

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With plans to expand into more than 15 African countries, this cryptocurrency platform is catching onto the digital currency craze. Luno&#8217;s GM for Africa, Marius Reitz joins CNBC Africa to unpack the global Bitcoin rally and what this means for growing interest in emerging markets.

Naspers-backed Luno outlines growth plans for Africa

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/julia-boorstin/">Julia Boorstin</a> 



Facebook is unveiling an ambitious plan to create a new digital currency and financial system to transform the way money moves around the world, and not just on its own apps.



It’s leading a consortium to create an open-source digital currency called Libra, set to launch in the first half of next year. The goal is for developers to create services for consumers to send money around the world easily and for free — with the same convenience as sending a photo or a message.



The Libra currency will not be run by Facebook, but rather by a nonprofit association supported by a range of companies and organizations. But&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=FB" class="">Facebook</a>&nbsp;does have a plan to profit from it with a new subsidiary, Calibra, which is building a digital wallet of the same name for storing and exchanging the currency.



The financial information from your digital wallet will not be used for ad targeting on Facebook’s platforms because the two divisions will be kept totally separate, the company said.



“We’ve seen internet change the game for everything that could be digitized, except for money,” said David Marcus, the leader of Facebook’s Calibra division.



“The numbers really speak for themselves. There’s 1.7 billion people around the world that are unbanked, the same number are underserved by financial services,” said Marcus, who before taking over Facebook’s blockchain initiatives ran its Messenger division and was previously president of PayPal. “Now, anyone with a cheap smartphone has access to all the info they want in the world for free with a basic data plan. Why doesn’t money work the same way?”



The announcement comes after Facebook has faced a slew of privacy issues, raising real questions about whether people will trust the social platform with their financial information. Marcus says that’s why it’s so important that Facebook not be in control of the currency.



“It may sound super controversial but there’s no better way to demonstrate the evolution of our thinking, what we know we should control and what we should not and can not control,” Marcus said. “A network that enables billions of people to move money around the world should not be something we can or should control.”What is Libra?



The new digital currency is set to launch in the first half of 2020. It will be run by a nonprofit, the Libra Association, based in Geneva, Switzerland. Its goal is to be broadly accessible, stable and secure.



Unlike bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which can be hugely volatile and speculative, Libra will be backed by relatively stable government-backed money.



“If you buy $50 of Libra, your $50 makes its way to the Libra Reserve,” said Marcus. “It’s designed to be stable and confer values on Libra that makes it more like a traditional currency than any of the digital currencies are now. This is the way paper money was created.”



The fact that the Libra blockchain is open-source means that anyone can build a service or app that uses the currency. The wallets that are developed to use the service will be interoperable, so you’ll be able to send money from Facebook’s Calibra wallet to any other system that accepts Libra.



Consumers will not interact with the Libra Association, but will only interact with Libra through a digital wallet or an operator. For people who don’t have the ability to digitally purchase Libra with a credit card or digitally linked account, Marcus says he expects companies in emerging markets to create locations where people can exchange Libra for cash.Who’s involved in this digital currency?



Facebook is joined by 27 other companies and organizations that are founding members. The goal is to have at least 100 companies and organizations on board for its launch next year. Each member of the association will manage one of the “nodes,” or locations where transactions involving Libra are validated.



Founding members include companies in the payments space:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=V" class="">Visa</a>, Stripe and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=PYPL" class="">PayPal</a>, which will be able to help merchants accept Libra. Some tech companies are also on board, including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=EBAY" class="">eBay</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=LYFT" class="">Lyft</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=UBER" class="">Uber</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=SPOT" class="">Spotify</a>, and Latin American payments platform Mercado Pago, which could drive adoption of acceptance of the currency. Two European telecom companies are also involved, Iliad and Vodafone.



Venture capital investment companies involved have experience with digital payments: Andreessen Horowitz, Breakthrough Initiatives, Ribbit Capital, Thrive Capital, and Union Square Ventures. Nonprofit and academic organizations on board are focused on helping people who don’t have access to banking: Creative Destruction Lab, Kiva, Mercy Corps, and Women’s World Banking. And four blockchain companies are involved: Anchorage, Bison Trails, Coinbase and Xapo Holdings.



“The idea is that [Libra] has mass adoption — lots of trusted companies that want to join the journey, so there’s a chance of this becoming mainstream,” Marcus said.



This list of founding members invested a minimum of $10 million to fund the operating costs of the nonprofit association as well as to launch an incentive program to jumpstart the underlying Libra blockchain and to drive adoption of the currency.Facebook’s Calibra digital wallet



Facebook’s Calibra is a digital wallet that will be accessible as a stand-alone app and integrated into Messenger and WhatsApp. Facebook says it’s designed to enable anyone to securely store money for free on their phone and to allow people to securely send and receive Libra around the world, with no fees for consumers, although Facebook is considering “very low” fees for merchants.



Down the line, Marcus anticipates Facebook will offer other financial services, such as loans, from which it could profit: “If the network is successful, it will be a big opportunity for us to provide lending to all these consumers,” he said.



Facebook’s larger goal is to get people to spend more time on its platforms. This launch will enable the 2.7 billion people who use its various apps every month to more easily make purchases from the 90 million businesses on its platform. The easier it is for these businesses to drive sales on Facebook, the more likely they are to buy ads.



Although Calibra is fully owned by Facebook, it’s operating as a subsidiary kept separate from Facebook’s advertising businesses, so it can be regulated appropriately.



One key use case for Calibra is remittances. Facebook says that every year $25 billion is lost by migrants on fees from the likes of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=WU" class="">Western Union</a>. Marcus says the current process is antiquated: Immigrants send a photo of their receipt from Western Union to family members via WhatsApp so they can collect the money, minus a fee. Calibra would cut Western Union and other money-transfer services out of the equation.



A key for Calibra’s adoption is making it easy to understand exchange rate and transfer money in and out of the currency, says&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/15/instagram-kevin-weil-helped-facebook-beat-snapchat.html" class="">Kevin Weil,&nbsp;</a>Calibra’s VP of Product who formerly oversaw Instagram Stories, Facebook’s successful attempt to battle Snapchat.



“The easier it is to go back and forth [from the local currency to Libra] the more confidence people will have,” he said. “If you’re banked you can imagine connecting your bank account, if you’re not banked then you can imagine a map that shows nearby money transfer experiences.”





Will this whole thing take off?



Libra is the first new cryptocurrency that has a real opportunity to bring digital currency to the mainstream, according to one of Libra’s founding partners, Anchorage, which acts as an institutional custodian for crypto assets.



It solves some of the underpinning issues that other cryptocurrencies have not been able to, to reach this promise, ” says Anchorage President and co-founder Diogo Monica.



“It’s based on a very scalable, highly efficient blockchain, that can do many thousands of transactions per second. And it’s backed by bank deposits and government securities like the U.S. dollar, so it will have low volatility,” Monica said. “The association has so many big players that already have relationships, which solves the chicken-and-egg problem of adoption.”



Monica says that Anchorage will operate one of the many nodes to handle Libra transactions and could sell its services to other members of the association for safekeeping of their Libra assets.



Marcus says if people don’t want to trust Facebook’s Calibra, there will be other apps to access the currency.



To boost its security, Calibra will have the same verification and anti-fraud processes that banks and credit cards use. To gain access users will have to have a valid government ID and use two-factor authentication, leveraging the likes of FaceID. The service will have built-in fraud production and dedicated live support. And if someone accesses a user’s account, Calibra promises to refund any lost assets.



Launching a whole new system comes with its challenges. “Every direction you look there’s stuff you have to figure out from scratch,” said Weil. “Not everyone is familiar with exchange rates, and even the folks that are, aren’t necessarily familiar with digital currency. I’ll take a lot of time to educate people.”



There’s also the question of regulatory approval. Weil says they’re talking to regulators and are in the process of getting money-transfer licenses, which they expect to have secured for a launch next year.



“People will misunderstand and think this is a Facebook thing, ” said Weil. “We incubated it, but it’s designed to be run in a decentralized way.”



This article first appeared on CNBC  <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/17/facebook-announces-libra-digital-currency-calibra-digital-wallet.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/17/facebook-announces-libra-digital-currency-calibra-digital-wallet.html</a> and is republished with its permission.

Facebook leads consortium creating Libra digital currency, launches Calibra digital wallet

Crypto Trader: Has Bitcoin entered a Bull Market?

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/kathleen-elkins/">Kathleen Elkins</a> 



Investing is one of the most effective ways&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/19/early-retiree-chris-reining-quit-saving-your-money-and-put-it-to-work.html" class="">to build wealth</a>. Some experts even say that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/26/ramit-sethi-saving-isnt-the-key-to-building-wealth.html" class="">the only way to “truly grow” your money</a>&nbsp;is to put it to work.



If you have an extra $500 to $1,000 and are ready to dip your toe into the markets, “you should put your money in just one thing: the S&amp;P 500,” certified financial planner&nbsp;<a href="https://creativeplanning.com/peter-mallouk/" class="">Peter Mallouk</a>&nbsp;tells&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/make-it/" class="">CNBC Make It</a>.



The S&amp;P 500 index fund holds 500 of the largest companies in the U.S., from Google to Disney to ExxonMobil. It allows you to take advantage of the success of major corporations without the risks associated with buying individual stocks.



“It’s the lowest cost investment that exists,” says Mallouk, who is the president of wealth management firm Creative Planning. “You can buy it at a discount custodian, like a TD Ameritrade, Fidelity or Charles Schwab, where the trading fees are exceptionally low. And with those 500 stocks, you now own about 80% of the market capitalization of the entire United States.” In other words, an S&amp;P 500 fund covers about 80% of the U.S. stock market, so it’s an easy and affordable way for investors to capture core U.S. stock market performance.



Plus, “you have global exposure,” Mallouk says, “because these companies get a lot of their earnings overseas: McDonald’s has shops in China, and Walmart has locations in Europe. So you wind up with a low cost, diversified portfolio that’s invested in the global economy.”



Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Warren Buffett agrees with Mallouk’s recommendation.



“It has been a tough time to beat the S&amp;P,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/25/buffett-says-investors-would-be-served-equally-well-by-sp-or-berkshire.html" class="">he told CNBC earlier this year</a>, adding: “I think it’s the best investment — because most people don’t know how to pick stocks. And, most of the time I don’t know how to pick stocks.”



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/09/mark-cuban-index-funds-are-the-best-way-to-invest-your-money.html" class="">Mark Cuban also champions index funds</a>: In a 2017 interview with Hayman Capital Management founder Kyle Bass, the business titan&nbsp;<a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/mark-cuban-tells-kyle-bass-ai-will-change-everything-weighs-in-on-bitcoin-2017-11-04" class="">said</a>that if you don’t know much about markets, the best way to invest your money is to put it in a cheap S&amp;P 500 fund.



At the end of the day, an extra $1,000, if managed correctly, can go a long way, Mallouk says: “If you put $1,000 in the S&amp;P a little over 10 years ago, today, you’d have more than $3,000. Even if we go back before the 2008 crisis — if we go back 11 years — still, you’d have more than tripled your money.”



This article first appeared on CNBC  <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/03/wealth-manager-invest-your-money-in-the-sp-500.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/03/wealth-manager-invest-your-money-in-the-sp-500.html</a> and is republished with its permission.

The smartest way to invest your first $1,000, according to a wealth manager

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/ryan-browne/">Ryan Browne</a> and <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/eustance-huang/">Eustance Huang</a> 





KEY POINTS



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>The cryptocurrency market shed about $10 billion in value in the space of an hour late Thursday, CoinMarketCap data showed.</li><li>New York’s top lawyer alleges Bitfinex used at least $700 million from Tether’s cash reserves to cover up an $850 million loss.</li><li>Questions have arisen over whether Tether has enough dollar reserves to justify its token’s dollar peg and whether it was used to manipulate prices.</li></ul>



Cryptocurrencies fell amid reignited regulatory worries and questions around the legitimacy of so-called “stablecoin” tether.



The entire market shed about $10 billion in value in the space of an hour late Thursday, CoinMarketCap data showed. This after the New York attorney general&nbsp;<a href="https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/attorney-general-james-announces-court-order-against-crypto-currency-company-under" class="">accused</a>&nbsp;the operator of bitcoin exchange Bitfinex and tether issuer Tether Limited of hiding an $850 million loss.



The state’s top lawyer alleges Bitfinex used at least $700 million from Tether’s cash reserves to cover up the apparent loss of $850 million of client and corporate funds. Its findings were detailed in papers filed with the Manhattan Supreme Court.



Tether is a cryptocurrency that is meant to be pegged to the U.S. dollar — otherwise known as a stablecoin. Worries have been raised over whether Tether Limited holds enough dollars to back all the tokens in circulation.



The price of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=BTC=" class="">bitcoin</a>, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, has fallen 4% over the last 24 hours, according to industry website CoinDesk. In the same time period, the prices of ethereum and XRP — the world’s second and third-largest virtual currencies by market value — also dropped 6% and 3%, respectively. Tether’s price fell over 1%, coming off its dollar peg.



The attorney general’s office said Thursday that Bitfinex handed $850 million to a Panama entity called Crypto Capital without disclosing it to investors. Executives at Bitfinex and Tether then allegedly “engaged in a series of conflicted corporate transactions” — where Bitfinex gave itself access to Tether’s cash reserves.



“Those transactions — which also have not been disclosed to investors — treat Tether’s cash reserves as Bitfinex’s corporate slush fund, and are being used to hide Bitfinex’s massive, undisclosed losses and inability to handle customer withdrawals,” the attorney general’s office said.



A court order issued by New York’s legal chief requires the operators of Bitfinex and Tether Limited to cease further losses of its U.S. dollar reserves. They are also barred from deleting or permitting others to delete potentially relevant documents and communications.Bitfinex’s response



Bitfinex said in response that the attorney general’s court filings were “written in bad faith” and “riddled with false assertions.” It flatly denied the alleged $850 million loss, stating the funds were “not lost but have been, in fact, seized and safeguarded.”



“Bitfinex and Tether have been fully cooperative with the New York attorney general’s office, as both companies are with all regulators,” the crypto exchange said in a <a class="" href="https://www.bitfinex.com/posts/356">statement</a> on its website. “The New York attorney general’s office should focus its efforts on trying to aid and support our recovery efforts.”



The company added that both Bitfinex and Tether are “financially strong,” and that it would challenge the order by New York.Why it matters



Tether is one of the most notable stablecoins on the market. It’s meant to be backed 1:1 by U.S. dollars to provide a stable value, and is often used as an alternative to government-backed money for crypto trading.



But it’s not been without controversy. Questions have arisen over whether it actually has enough dollar reserves to justify that dollar peg and whether it was used to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/13/much-of-bitcoins-2017-boom-was-market-manipulation-researcher-says.html" class="">manipulate bitcoin’s huge price spike</a>&nbsp;in 2017.



Charles Hayter, CEO of digital currency comparison firm CryptoCompare, said the New York fraud probe into tether was affecting the market. He said it creates a knock-on effect as tether is “so ubiquitous and so enigmatic.”



Cryptocurrencies have slumped massively from a monster rally in late 2017. Bitcoin, once worth almost $20,000, has fallen steeply to just under $5,300 as of Friday. It had a <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/02/bitcoin-rallies-14percent-to-its-highest-level-since-november-last-year.html">recent pop</a> last month that experts attributed to algorithm-driven trading.



This article was first published by CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/26/cryptocurrency-bitcoin-price-falls-on-ny-ag-bitfinex-probe.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/26/cryptocurrency-bitcoin-price-falls-on-ny-ag-bitfinex-probe.html</a> and is republished with its permission.

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