Last week, it was reported that Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency lost one of the companies that initially supported it. This came in the form of PayPal who decided to back out of the cryptocurrency. However, it seems that Libra could be in serious trouble because it looks like more founding companies are withdrawing their support as well.This comes in the form of Mastercard, Visa, Stripe, Mercado Pago, and eBay who have all pulled out of Libra. In a statement made to The Verge, a Visa spokesperson said, “Visa has decided not to join the Libra Association at this time. We will continue to evaluate and our ultimate decision will be determined by a number of factors, including the Association’s ability to fully satisfy all requisite regulatory expectations.”
eBay also issued a statement that reads, “We highly respect the vision of the Libra Association. However, eBay has made the decision to not move forward as a founding member. At this time, we are focused on rolling out eBay’s managed payments experience for our customers.” In a way it’s not surprising to see more companies pull out from Libra.
Considering Facebook’s various privacy and data-related scandals, many were surprised to learn that the company would be launching their own cryptocurrency. Not too long after the announcement, Facebook was met with a ton of resistance from governments and regulators, many of whom expressed concern that it could be used for illegal activities (to be fair, this is the general concern of cryptocurrencies and is not limited to Facebook).
Facebook has since cautioned investors that due to all of this resistance and concern, there might actually be a chance that Libra could end up not launching at all.
Filed in . Read more about Cryptocurrency, Ebay, Facebook, Mastercard and Visa. Source: theverge