Contrary to popular belief, Facebook is not behind the Virtual Bootcamp that is slated to begin in November, held for the Libra developers. This first incubator is being organized by Libracamp, a newly formed start-up by Israeli entrepreneurs. The start-up’s team of entrepreneurs is keen to make the most of the social media giant’s crypto project Libra for revenues. Interestingly, the team is at it without the 10M dollars necessary for joining the Libra Association.
Libracamp has obtained over 80 applications so far from participants keen to be a part of the start-up’s Bootcamp. Tomer Weiss, one of the co-founders of Libracamp, states that although the Calibra team of Facebook is corresponding with them, they are not sponsoring the program officially.
Weiss, in his conversation with CoinDesk, also added that they see it as programmable money apps and digital assets’ ‘iOS moment’. Imagine an incubator coming to entities to assist them in the ways they can put their firms on iOS prior to the iPhone launch, Weiss said.
As per the reports, the 5 co-founders of Libracamp have put together a whopping 125,000 dollars to distribute among the 5 selected teams for this 1st Bootcamp. Presently, they are raising funds for the winning team’s prize money of one million dollars apart from raising capital for the Bootcamp’s second batch next year.
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The Libracamp platform would help associate Libra developers with the mentors, allow investors and opportunities while offering a robust crowdsourced vibe compared to other accelerator programs.
However, it must be noted that the roads ahead for Libra are difficult. In its recent 2nd Quarter filing with the US SEC, Facebook has indicated that Libra project might never see the light of the day, thanks to the regulatory concerns. Another co-founder of Libracamp, Yonatan Ben Simon, while sharing his views about regulatory issues said that if the project goes out, they’ll be a prime player in the world’s important financial infrastructure. If it doesn’t, the protocol could be applied to other stuff.
While other crypto start-ups, such as Orbs, is contemplating the expensive way of joining the Libra association formally, Libracamp is trying to make things smoother for everyone. For instance, Libracamp offered a modest grant to the Kyber Network, as well as a few other start-ups, before this Bootcamp. Kyber Network has already begun its work on the atomic swaps between Libra and Ethereum. The mentor of the Bootcamp, Lex Sokolin, stated that interoperability will take place between the largest networks in the world.
Facebook, on the other hand, has enough reasons to support and allow investments from external parties in a stronger ecosystem. After all, the social media giant has been widely criticized over the dominance it has over the infrastructure of the Libra ecosystem. Though many companies want to become a part of the Libra Association, it is the cost associated which restricts them. That’s when Libracamp offers great aid, financially as well as through mentorship access, especially to smaller firms.
It’s also worth noting that Facebook has chosen to stay away from building tools for the sanctioned markets such as Venezuela; the team of South American experts behind Valiu has already begun working on the solutions with Libracamp.
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The Libracamp founders believe that their crew has asymmetric benefits to gain as Facebook has a massive daily active user base of 1.59 billion.
