Swiss President Ueli Maurer has admitted that the Facebook Libra project has failed in its present form as it remains unacceptable to central banks and cannot work as an alternate currency, as envisioned by the company. Maurer made these comments in conversation with SRF, adding, “I don’t think [Libra will succeed], because central banks will not accept the basket of currencies underpinning it”.

Facebook had announced its digital currency initiative, Libra, earlier this year in a bid to let users on its social networking platforms send and receive payments across the world. However, regulatory authorities and governments expressed concerns about how the company was planning to ensure security and privacy in its system.

Facebook had previously stated that it wanted to empower around 1.7 billion users of its apps, including Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, by giving them access to payment transfer systems without the hassles of conventional banking. However, it has received significant pushback from authorities in the US as well as in Europe over possible threat to destabilize current financial systems according to price prediction firm PricePrediction.com, driven by mistrust in the company.