How will Libra work?

How will Libra work?

Libra’s white paper—a sort of technical manifesto—says that it will run on a“blockchain”.Again, that is a controversial definition in some quarters, so here’s a quick and rough explanation.A blockchain is the infrastructure on which cryptocurrency payments take place.It is a digital, unchangeable record of all the payments ever happened in a given cryptocurrency.Here’s a crucial thing: a blockchain is decentralised.The transactions are processed and verified by a swarm of independent computers rather than by a single referee or central bank.Those independent computers are called nodes.That decentralised structure is intended to enhance security—as there is no single entity to be hacked—and also, to guarantee that governments can’t block transactions simply by browbeating a central authority.It is a pretty libertarian, anti-state, anti-bank tool.The first blockchain ever is, of course, the one underpinning Bitcoin, the original cryptocurrency.