Facebook today unveiled a new subsidiary, Calibra, whose goal will be to provide financial services. Calibra will launch its first product in 2020: a digital portfolio for Libra, a new global currency based on blockchain technology. This wallet will be available in Messenger, WhatsApp and via a dedicated application. This digital wallet, will save, send and pay with Libra.
Upon release, Calibra will transfer Libra to almost anyone with a smartphone, as easily and instantly as a sms, at little or no cost. In due course, we hope to provide additional services to individuals and businesses, such as paying bills at the touch of a button, buying a coffee with a QR code, or using public transit without money on oneself or transport ticket.
“With the exception of limited cases, Calibra will not share account information or financial data with Facebook or any other third party without your consent,” said the world’s number one social network.
Internet – ISPs and websites
The European Union is working on a project of taxation of the giants of the Net. Based on the tax optimization strategies of groups like Google, Facebook or Amazon, this project provides for a European tax of 3%. But the 28 European countries can not agree. Germany has finally rallied to France’s plan and the Franco-German text serves as a new base. The tax will ultimately be limited to the online advertising activity alone (and not to all revenue). The text will not be adopted until March 2019 and by that time the four countries still opposed to the directive still have to be convinced: Ireland, Denmark, Sweden and Finland.