Pioneering digital payments firm PayPal has said it is abandoning an alliance intended to oversee the Facebook-backed Libra cryptocurrency, which has come under attack by regulators.
TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports Dante Disparte, head of policy of the association set up to oversee Libra made this known in response to an AFP inquiry.
“PayPal has made the decision to forgo further participation in the Libra Association at this time. We remain supportive of Libra’s aspirations and look forward to continued dialogue on ways to work together in the future,” he said.
Facebook unveiled plans in June for Libra, which will roll out in 2020, to be backed by a basket of currency assets to avoid the wild swings of Bitcoin and other virtual units.
The non-profit Libra Association, based in Geneva, will oversee the blockchain-based coin.
Facebook envisions Libra as a new global cryptocurrency, pledging to deliver a stable virtual money that lives on smartphones and could bring over a billion “unbanked” people into the financial system.
However, there had been international outcry mounting over Libra, with central banks and governments railing against Facebook’s upstart cryptocurrency, and questions over how it would be regulated.
Mastercard, Visa and other financial partners enlisted to oversee Libra are reportedly having second thoughts as regulators unleash ire on the project and dig for information from members of the association.
“It requires a certain boldness and fortitude to take on an endeavour as ambitious as Libra, a generational opportunity to get things right and improve financial inclusion.
“The journey will be long and challenging. We’re better off knowing about this lack of commitment now, rather than later.”
“The type of change that will reconfigure the financial system to be tilted towards people, not the institutions serving them, will be hard.
“Commitment to that mission is more important to us than anything else,” Disparte said.
Other Libra backers include ride-hailing apps Lyft and Uber.
The head of the association said last week that the project’s leaders aimed to “reassure” regulators worried about the virtual money.