Lucas Geiger, co-founder of blockchain startup Wireline, announced that different companies and organizations plan to create a hard fork of Facebook’s Libra. According to Geiger, the hard fork is called OpenLibra.
The announcement came at the Ethereum Foundation’s DevCon 5 conference in Osaka, Japan.
But before going any further about OpenLibra, let’s remind you about Libra and what exactly a hard fork is.
Libra – Facebook’s cryptocurrency
Libra is a stablecoin pegged to fiat currencies such as the US dollar. The cryptocurrency is built on top of permissioned blockchain, and was developed by Facebook.
The project, however, has been facing criticisms and opposition from the very beginning.
US regulators and politicians were among the first to express their concerns, as well as French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, and other international politicians.
However, Libra’s launch is planned in 2020.
So, let’s find out more about hard forks.
What is exactly is a hard fork?
A hard fork is a change in a network’s protocol that turns previously invalid blocks and transactions valid, or vice-versa. Developers can impement hard forks for many reasons such as:
- Correcting security risks
- Adding new features
- Reversing transactions
To make a hard fork happen, all nodes or users have to upgrade to the latest version of the protocol.
Let’s go back to OpenLibra
Now that we cleared these terms up, it’s time to take a look at Libra’s hard fork. OpenLibra is a hard fork of Libra, Facebook’s notorious cryptocurrency.
However, compared with Libra, its hard fork is different in a couple of ways. For example, while Libra is built on permissioned blockchain, OpenLibra is permissionless.
What’s more, Libra is distributed, while OpenLibra is completely decentralized, without a central authority.
And Libra’s hard fork will have less regulatory exposure.
Despite these differences, OpenLibra will be compatible with Libra in some areas. For example, its value will also be pegged to that of Libra, and it will use the same programming language – Move.
The team behind OpenLibra includes people from blockchain companies such as Cosmos and Web3 Foundation, as well as non-profit organizations like the Danish Red Cross.
According to Lucas Geiger, the project won’t hold a token sale.
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