PayPal has decided to withdraw from the Libra Association, a non-profit organization which consists of 28 companies and was formed on June of 2019 to oversee the emergence of the upcoming cryptocurrency but also to make it available to consumers.
The company did not give a specific reason for its departure from the project Libra. But in a statement published by TheVerge, she says:
We continue to support the Libra Association and look forward to the ongoing dialogue on new ways of working together in the future. The Facebook is a long-term and significant strategic partner of PayPal and we will continue to work together and support the company.
However, an article that posted yesterday the Financial Times reported that PayPal began to walk away from the project due to increasing regulatory scrutiny. The company said it would not attend a meeting in Washington, and the FT reports that at least one of PayPal's primary concerns was the lack of attention Facebook executives appear to be paying to important reactions for Libra. Another unanswered question for Paypal seems to be how the platform will manage to combat money laundering.
In a statement posted by TheVerge, Dante Disparte, head of policy and communications at Libra Association, reaffirmed the nonprofit's commitment to "create a comprehensive payment network" by criticizing PayPal for not having the "strength" to do so. insists on something as difficult and demanding as the Libra project.
"It takes courage and vigor to make an effort as ambitious as the Libra project," says Disparte.
The journey will be long and difficult. The type of change that will reshape finance system it will have to turn to the people and not to the institutions that serve them and that will be difficult. Commitment to this mission is more important to us than anything else. So it is better to know from now who is not committed.
The loss of PayPal does not necessarily mean the dissolution of Libra, but no matter how we do it, the company was an important economic factor, along with existing member companies such as Mastercard and Visa, of the Libra Association.
The loss of PayPal may not be a worrying sign of project progress, but the Wall Street Journal Reported also earlier this week that both Mastercard and Visa, as well as Stripe's digital payment platform, were considering withdrawing from the Libra Association with similar concerns about money laundering from illegal activities.
