VIRTUAL CURRENCY – Visa, MasterCard, and E-bay just ditched Facebook’s Libra Association over the weekend.
The departure of these big names from the association means a blowback to the project. It makes Libra’s potential universal acceptance by consumers and regulators a little blurrier.
Among other partners that left Libra in the air are Stripe and Mercado Pago. PayPal, eBay’s former subsidiary, said bye to the group just the week prior.
Today, the Libra association will hold its first official meeting. During the meeting, members will make binding commitments to the project.
As a result, markets are thinking that the timing of the departures is no coincidence. The companies probably weren’t ready enough to commit, so they jumped off-ship.
Aiming to be among top virtual currencies, the Libra came out earlier this year from Facebook. The tech company said it hoped to have more than 100 member companies by the official launch in 2020.
Virtual Currency will “Suck,” says Warren
Facebook has been aiming to establish a cryptocurrency that could open online purchasing to millions of people without bank accounts.
However, just like the broader crypto industry, Libra has faced a truckload of scrutiny from regulators and authority.
Politicians are also ganging up on the project.
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren turned virtual currencies as a hallmark of her presidential campaign. She has since fought in a war of words with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Zuckerberg has said that it would “suck” if Warren became president and aimed to break up the company.
Warren responded in a tweet, saying that what would “suck” was if they didn’t fix a corrupt system. The system, according to Warren, lets giant companies engage in illegal anti-competitive activities.
Still, some analysts believe that Facebook can again launch Libra if they wanted to. According to one, the only reason Facebook wants the companies is to make it look good.
Down the road, markets and crypto followers can expect Libra and virtual currencies to continue stumbling upon challenges like scrutiny and departures.
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