Libra changes its name and becomes “Diem” in anticipation of its launch in 2021

The Libra Association created by Facebook last year decided to change the name of the project it deals with to further distance itself from the original vision led by Facebook (Facebook shares ticker: FB).

The group of 27 companies announced on December 2021 that it will change its name to Diem (Latin for “day”) as it prepares for the potential launch in XNUMX of a single dollar-linked stablecoin.

The organization has also finalized its leadership team, which includes Dahlia Malkhi as chief technology officer, Christy Clark as chief of staff, Steve Bunnell as chief legal officer, and Kiran Raj as executive vice president for growth and innovation and deputy advisor. general.

The new hires join CEO Stuart Levey, Managing Director James Emmett, Chief Compliance Officer Sterling Daines, Chief Financial Officer Ian Jenkins and General Counsel Saumya Bhavsar.

Modified the original Libra project to avoid the fury of the regulators

Social media giant Facebook unveiled Libra in June 2019 after more than a year of covert work, development and research. At the time, the project involved a stablecoin backed by a basket of fiat currencies, which could be used around the world as a medium of exchange.

The project immediately caused an international regulatory backlash, with lawmakers demanding that all development cease until they were able to better understand it, provide some level of regulatory oversight, and ensure there were no risks to financial stability.

Libra's governing body, which was formally created in November 2019, later narrowed down the scope of the project, announcing in April 2020 that it would launch only a group of stablecoins, each backed by a single fiat currency or asset. .

“I think the regulatory stakeholders are really welcoming this more autonomous version of the association. They want to see an association strong enough to make their own decisions and have a management team capable of directing the project.

Partly for this reason we decided to change the name, from Libra to Diem, ”Levey said. The project's white paper was also edited to reduce Facebook's role.

Levey declined to provide a timetable, noting that the Federal Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) which is expected to authorize the project will make its decision in due course.

The blockchain cannot be touched!

The project is ready for technical launch, although developers are continuing to test and improve the design, Levey said. And although the project has evolved a lot since its presentation, it still uses a blockchain.

“We think there are technological and governance benefits to having a blockchain. It allows for innovation and collaboration in the open source space which we believe will add real potential to the overall project, add collaboration and innovation and frankly one of the things I like is that there will be use cases developed and innovations that we at Diem-Libra Association we would never have thought for ourselves, ”he said.