TechCentralTechCentral
    Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentral TechCentral
    NEWSLETTER
    • News

      Pick n Pay partners with Takealot in online shopping push

      17 May 2022

      Everything PC S01E02 – ‘AMD: Ryzen from the dead – part 2’

      17 May 2022

      Elon Musk is becoming like Henry Ford – and that’s not a good thing

      17 May 2022

      WhatsApp Premium: new subscription plan in development

      17 May 2022

      Fibre break knocks out Telkom’s network

      17 May 2022
    • World

      Musk tells Twitter: prove your bot claims, or the deal is off

      17 May 2022

      Intel shareholders reject pay packages for top executives

      17 May 2022

      Musk hints at reduced offer price for Twitter

      17 May 2022

      SpaceX gets $125-billion valuation in private placement

      17 May 2022

      Crypto’s wild week offers a much-needed warning

      16 May 2022
    • In-depth

      Stablecoins wend wobbly way into the unknown

      17 May 2022

      The standard model of particle physics may be broken

      11 May 2022

      Meet Jared Birchall, Elon Musk’s personal ‘fixer’

      6 May 2022

      Twitter takeover was brash and fast, with Musk calling the shots

      26 April 2022

      Musk wants free speech on Twitter but spent years silencing critics

      21 April 2022
    • Podcasts

      Everything PC S01E01 – ‘AMD: Ryzen from the dead – part 1’

      10 May 2022

      Llew Claasen on how exchange controls are harming SA tech start-ups

      2 May 2022

      The inside scoop on OVEX’s big expansion plans

      20 April 2022

      Decentralised finance, the ‘end of banks’ – and what comes next

      25 March 2022

      Maxtec and BigFix: helping stop cyberattackers in their tracks

      18 March 2022
    • Opinion

      From spectrum to roads, why fixing SA’s problems is an uphill battle

      19 April 2022

      How AI is being deployed in the fight against cybercriminals

      8 April 2022

      Cash is still king … but not for much longer

      31 March 2022

      Icasa on the role of TV white spaces and dynamic spectrum access

      31 March 2022

      Minister Ntshavheni is at risk of tripping up

      24 March 2022
    • Company Hubs
      • 1-grid
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Amplitude
      • Atvance Intellect
      • Axiz
      • BOATech
      • CallMiner
      • Digital Generation
      • E4
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • IBM
      • Kyocera Document Solutions
      • Microsoft
      • Nutanix
      • One Trust
      • Pinnacle
      • Skybox Security
      • SkyWire
      • Videri Digital
      • Zendesk
    • Sections
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud computing
      • Consumer electronics
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Energy
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Motoring and transport
      • Public sector
      • Science
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home»Sections»Cryptocurrencies»Why Naspers is backing Facebook’s cryptocurrency project

    Why Naspers is backing Facebook’s cryptocurrency project

    Cryptocurrencies By Duncan McLeod23 June 2019
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Bob van Dijk

    Naspers CEO Bob van Dijk believes cryptocurrencies could have a huge and positive impact on societies by allowing for frictionless and costless transfer of value between people, something that doesn’t exist in the world of fiat currencies.

    Speaking to TechCentral following the publication of Naspers’s annual results on Friday, Van Dijk said the group, through its subsidiary PayU, is “excited” about working with Facebook and other partners in developing the libra cryptocurrency.

    PayU is one of about 30 firms that has joined the Libra Association, a group of companies that will have an equal say in how the cryptocurrency is managed. Facebook hopes another 70 or more will enter the fold in the future, bringing the total to 100. Visa and Mastercard, the world’s largest payments networks, as well as PayPal are on board.

    It’s an empowering idea where you basically create a frictionless, costless way for people to transfer value to each other

    PayU and the other companies have reportedly stumped up US$10-million (about R143-million) each to be founder members of the Libra Association and to help direct the development of the cryptocurrency, which has the potential to become the first crypto money be used on a mass scale worldwide for payments.

    “It’s obviously early days … but the ambition that Facebook has with libra is exciting,” Van Dijk told TechCentral about PayU’s investment in the project. “It’s an empowering idea where you basically create a frictionless, costless way for people to transfer value to each other, so I think that’s exciting.”

    He said Facebook was keen to work with PayU because the company connects many people in growth markets to the online financial world.

    ‘That’s what we do’

    “That’s what we do at PayU: if you have a credit card, everybody can connect to the online world financially, but if you don’t, you need a payment service provider that is good at connecting whatever payment instrument you have to the Internet, and that’s what we do. That’s why it was interesting for them (Facebook) to partner with us so we could help them connect that digital world to the real payments world in growth markets like India and Latin America — and South Africa, for that matter. So, we think it’s a good match. We are excited about their ambition and we will see how things develop over time.”

    It’s not Naspers’s first foray into the world of cryptocurrencies. The group is already an investor in Luno, a crypto exchange founded and run by South Africans.

    “If you look at what crypto can mean for society, if you can get indeed to frictionless, costless value transfer that is secure, that’s something I very much believe in,” Van Dijk said. “There’s tremendous amount of waste and friction in the fiat currency system. In many cases, people who remit money across borders can pay significant fees, so I like the idea of crypto that enables people to do that value transfer without that friction and cost.”

    However, he said it’s “hard to call” which cryptocurrencies will ultimately be the ones that are successful in achieving this.  — © 2019 NewsCentral Media, with additional reporting (c) 2019 Bloomberg LP

    Bitcoin Bob van Dijk Facebook Libra Libra Association Luno Naspers PayU top
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Previous ArticleTalkCentral: Ep 264 – ‘Jobs axe falls at MultiChoice’
    Next Article Watch: Inkjet – so much more than a print technology

    Related Posts

    Pick n Pay partners with Takealot in online shopping push

    17 May 2022

    Everything PC S01E02 – ‘AMD: Ryzen from the dead – part 2’

    17 May 2022

    Elon Musk is becoming like Henry Ford – and that’s not a good thing

    17 May 2022
    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Promoted

    Detect and prioritise cloud security risks in minutes, not months

    17 May 2022

    Eye on the future: an interview with PureSoftware CTO Tushar Bhatkar

    17 May 2022

    Accelerating test automation

    16 May 2022
    Opinion

    From spectrum to roads, why fixing SA’s problems is an uphill battle

    19 April 2022

    How AI is being deployed in the fight against cybercriminals

    8 April 2022

    Cash is still king … but not for much longer

    31 March 2022

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2022 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.