US payments giant PayPal Holdings Inc on Friday announced that it would be dropping Libra Association, the entity managing the Facebook-led effort to build global virtual currency Libra, making it the first member to quit the group of 29, including Uber Technologies Inc, Lyft Inc and Spotify Technologies.
Paypal said in a statement that they remain supportive of Libra’s aspirations and look forward to a continued dialogue on ways to collaborate in the future. The payment giant added that it would be focusing on its core business and forgo participation in the group.
Responding to PayPal’s exit, Facebook’s Libra Association stated that the type of change that will re-engineer the financial system to be leaned towards people, not the bodies serving them, would be tough. It added,
“Commitment to that mission is more important to us than anything else. We’re better off knowing about this lack of commitment now, rather than later.”
Declining backers- Visa & Mastercard
According to The Wall Street Journal, Mastercard has been considering to launch its cryptocurrency, altcoin. The move came as a surprise last week, as Mastercard is one of the founding members of the Libra Association that plans to launch the digital asset next year.
Furthermore, being vigilant of attracting regulatory scrutiny, executives of some of Libra’s existing backers have denied facebook’s requests to support the project publicly. Mastercard Inc, Visa Inc and other financial partners that signed on to help build and maintain the Libra payments network have been reconsidering their association following a backlash from US and European government officials.
RBI & IAMAI clash- crypto in India
The IAMAI or Internet and Mobile Association of India told the apex court last month that the RBI had banned cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin, on moral grounds. It said that no research was conducted by the banking regulator before the ban to analyze if the digital currencies were unsafe.
The IAMAI stated that while the base technology called blockchain wasn’t in question, a total ban on crypto was uncalled for. The Reserve Bank of India has now been asked to respond to the issues raised by crypto exchanges within two weeks of SC, about the prohibition on cryptocurrency.
