yes, their whitepaper heavily suggests that access to finance products for the poor is a big motivation behind Libra. However, it does feel a bit like white washing as the majority of the profits from Libra will obviously be the convenience of paying via facebook owned messengers etc.

The poor, even in developed countries, aren’t well served by the incumbents.

Visa and MasterCard are collaborating on the Libra protect.

For those two reasons I don’t know if it makes sense to say Libra is competing with the incumbents.

The problem with Visa and Mastercard in the developing countries I've experienced is the banking system.

In Cambodia, you can only get a credit card from a Cambodian bank if you have a deposit with them that matches your credit limit (i.e. to get a card with a $5K limit, you need to maintain a balance of $5K in your account).

Most people cannot get credit/debit cards because the banks won't issue them, because they don't trust anyone and won't take the risk involved in issuing cards

I can see how Libra will solve a lot of frustrations for Visa/Mastercard working in poorer countries

What risk is there in issuing debit cards? Other than the obvious fraud potential, but that usually doesn’t originate with the card holder.

to be honest, I'm not sure. They issued me one when I asked for it, but I had to ask, it wasn't normal. And often when I use it, I get a Whatsapp call from a nervous bank staff member checking that it was me that used it. Kind of cute really.

Yeah right. Where do you live? Here in Australia Visa / Mastercard debit cards are very common.

This is Cambodia I'm talking about.I don't live there any more, but I still use the bank account I set up when I did