The head of Calibra at Facebook, David Marcus, said that Libra users will not have to put their trust in Facebook. He said this in a post on July 3.
Marcus again said that Facebook is not the only member of the Libra Network, and that they are relinquishing control of the network. He said:
“Facebook will not control the network, the currency, or the reserve backing it. Facebook will only be one among over a hundred members of the Libra Association by launch. We will not have any special rights or privileges.”
Polychain CEO Carlson-Wee said relinquishing control over the infrastructure behind Libra is the best strategy for Facebook.
At the Consensus 2019 blockchainconference in May, Carlson-Wee said:
“I think that the strategic move for Facebook would actually be to build public infrastructure. And that public infrastructure could be incorporated onto all the Facebook platforms, which of course are proprietary. But that public infrastructure, if they don’t try to own it, I think that’s where they will have the most success.”
Marcus said while the crypto wallet company Calibra is not owned by Facebook as a subsidiary, no financial data will be available to Facebook. Marcus said users are free to use many custodial and non-custodial wallets from different companies to store and make transactions with Libra.
Non-custodial wallet ZenGo has provided a proof-of-concept demonstration for Libra support. Marcus said users do not have to put their trust in Facebook in other to use Libra:
“Bottom line: You won’t have to trust Facebook to get the benefit of Libra. And Facebook won’t have any special responsibility over the Libra Network…. We’ve been clear about our approach to financial data separation and we will live up to our commitments and work hard to deliver real utility.”