Facebook, Libra, and the Long Game
> The largest leap will come last: Libra as a genuine currency, not simply a medium for transaction. This will be function of volume in the previous two use cases, and is understandably concerning to governments all over the world.<p>Well that's certainly an understatement.<p>This is literally the only mention of government through-out the entire article. The only mention of banks is in the previous paragraph stating there are no banks in the coalition.<p>Banks and governments go together like peas and carrots, they also control pretty much everything and have for hundreds and thousands of years.  This control is derived from a few places, but primarily from a monopoly on the control of the currency and the monopoly on coercive force.<p>No government is going to let FB and any coalition do an end run around their national currency and their banking institutions. They're also not going to partner with an international consortium to have them replaced with something they only partially control.<p>I really don't know why this isn't a larger part of this conversation.  I think people need to be cracking more history books and less William Gibson and Neil Stephenson novels.