Binance wants to launch a Libra-like digital currency

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Binance is the latest company to believe it can offer a better cryptocurrency than Facebook’s Libra. Despite already having the Binance Coin (BNB), Binance has announced that it wants to introduce a new blockchain project that would concentrate on creating localized stablecoins across the globe. If the solution is anything like Libra, it might be neither a digital currency or a stablecoin, given that Facebook’s solution has repeatedly been called out for not measuring up to the decentralization definition associated with crypto.

Binance announced the new project in a blog post yesterday. It has dubbed the project Venus – an interesting name since the planet Venus does everything opposite to the standards. The planet rotates opposite the direction of most planets and has a generally hostile surface with no atmospheric magnetic field.

Venus is “an initiative to develop localized stablecoins and digital assets pegged to fiat currencies across the globe.” The company hopes it can be used to create new partnerships “with governments, corporations, technology companies, and other cryptocurrency companies and projects involved in the larger blockchain ecosystem, to empower developed and developing countries to spur new currencies.”

Binance already has a couple of stablecoin alternatives, the Binance BGBP Stable Coin, which is pegged to the British pound, and a stablecoin reportedly pegged to Bitcoin Core (BTC), the BTCB. Given the lack of stability in BTC, it’s difficult to imagine how the BTCB could remain stable.

The company adds in its post, “Binance welcomes additional government partners, companies and organizations with a strong interest and influence on a global scale to collaborate with us to build a new open alliance and sustainable community. We encourage like-minded people and organizations to contact us and discuss the infinite possibilities of the digital world together.”

Binance may have chosen the name Venus to follow a pattern of starry-eyed stablecoins. If you haven’t already noticed a pattern, Libra is tied to astrology, as is the Gemini stablecoin and Gemini exchange offered by the Winklevoss brothers. For those who aren’t into astrology, Venus has been associated with self-indulgence, self-centeredness, vanity and superficiality. It can’t be anything more than just a coincidence.