Bad news for Mark's ambitious plan Zuckerberg: Mastercard, Visa, Stripe and eBay are pulling out of Facebook's Libra payments network, according to reports, putting Facebook's entry into the encryption market at immediate risk.
The news is coming a few days after PayPal was removed by Project while several months of scrutiny by global regulatory authorities will follow.
Facebook announced the Libra project June of 2019, explaining that it intends to release a digital currency 2020.
Digital currency could be integrated into Facebook's services to provide the necessary tool for all e-commerce transactions on the social network platform and beyond.
At that time, Facebook proudly announced that there were many large companies in the industry supporting the project, and formed the Geneva-based Libra Association, a consortium that would oversee its encryption and development.
The initial members of the consortium were Uber, Lyft, Spotify, Vodafone, Mercado Pago, PayU and others.
But slowly the companies - supporters of the ambitious project started to leave. Of course, all those who left the consortium tried to leave the door open (perhaps for a return if they saw the idea enthusiastically adopted).
"Visa has decided not to join the Libra Association right now," said a Visa company spokesman at ZDNet.
Visa's continued interest in Libra stems from our belief that blockchain-based networks could scale for secure digital transactions to a greater number of people and places, particularly in emerging and developing markets.
A Stripe spokesman told ZDNet:
Stripe supports projects that aim to make it on-line trade more accessible to people from around the world, and Libra has this momentum, we will closely monitor its progress and remain open to working with the Libra Association at a later stage.
While eBay reported:
We respect the vision of the Libra Association. However, eBay has decided not to go as a founding member.
Mastercard has not made any statement at this time.
Here's to mention that after Facebook announced the Libra project, there were a lot of reactions:
- Facebook Libra stop by American Lawmakers
- Facebook Libra: Three questions for Facebook
- Facebook Libra: command to stop the project
- Facebook Libra: France doesn't want it in Europe
- PayPal withdraws from Facebook Libra Association