Following the update of the white paper in mid-April, Libra increased its core team in the past few weeks, appointing Robert Werner as general counsel and Stuart Levey as CEO. Experts believe that Libra’s recruitment frenzy reflects its willingness to comply with existing laws and regulations.
According to Cointelegraph, before joining Libra, Werner served as director of the Financial Crime Audit Bureau (FinCEN) and held important positions in financial companies such as HSBC, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch. Levey also served as the Chief Legal Officer of HSBC Holdings. In addition, Libra also attracted Temasek, a 100% stake in the Singapore government, the San Francisco-based cryptocurrency investment company Paradigm Fund, and private equity firm Slow Ventures to join its camp. Temasek claims to have a portfolio of assets worth US $ 219 billion.
A Libra spokesperson believes that Werner and Levey have extensive experience in monitoring, reviewing financial crime compliance, and law enforcement. Citing the speech of Temasek Deputy CEO Jia Songhui “Joining Libra allows us to contribute to the establishment of a regulated global retail payment network.”
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Joe Lallouz, CEO of the regional chain company Bison Trails, believes that this promotes the development of Libra and enhances its overall independence. He also believes that this will help Libra conduct in-depth dialogues with regulatory authorities around the world. Regarding Temasek, Paradigm Fund and Slow Ventures as members of the Libra family, Lallouz said that due to the profound market influence of these companies, the entire cryptocurrency and regional chain industry will definitely move in a good direction.
Reuben Yap, head of the privacy-centric cryptocurrency Zcoin (XZC) project, believes that soliciting Werner and Levey shows that Libra pays more attention to regulation and compliance, because a careful study of Libra ’s past can be seen in its handling of many traditional and cryptocurrency markets. Underperformed. Yap said, “Before taking up FinCEN, Werner was the director of the Office of Overseas Assets Control (OFAC), which is responsible for implementing economic sanctions programs against foreign governments, individuals, organizations, and entities. Levey is also the Department of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Agency (TFI) ) ‘S first deputy minister, during his tenure he was responsible for curbing external funding for terrorist organizations. He also played an important role in the strategy of putting pressure on the Iranian economy and further isolating Iran from the international financial system. ”
But not everyone seems to be optimistic about Libra’s increase. For example, Will Martino, co-founder and CEO of regional chain interoperability company Kadena, thinks this can be simply regarded as “professional employment”, and their joining is like “a credit card with a little encryption.”
Many experts believe that the addition of Temasek will enhance Libra’s legitimacy, and may even help Libra’s application in the country and other parts of Asia more smoothly. A similar situation occurred when Temasek invested in Binance, which eased Binance’s pressure, successfully launched the regulated fiat currency exchange Binance Singapore, and stimulated the use of cryptocurrencies in the region. In addition, by working with government-backed companies such as Temasek and hiring senior professionals in regulation and compliance, Libra seems to realize that it needs to attract more participants in the larger financial circle instead of redefining the entire system. Recent actions also indicate that Libra was very serious about dealing with financial crimes such as synergy or abetting money laundering before going public.
Libra’s original cryptocurrency plan was ambitious, and even wanted to bring about disruptive changes. It attempts to build a decentralized regional chain, a low-volatility cryptocurrency and a smart contract platform. But Libra’s latest white paper revision basically abandoned these ideas and emphasized maintaining the status quo of fiat currency.
Lallouz believes that the new white paper represents a concession made by Libra after negotiations with regulatory authorities around the world. Martino believes that Libra 2.0 caters to the Financial Stability Board ’s new global stablecoin guidelines and eliminates the current gray zone of most stablecoins, but its transparency and decentralization are quite limited.
The changes to Libra ’s white paper and recent recruitment seem to indicate that it is closing its ambitions and entering the global financial ecosystem in a legal and compliant manner.