PayPal Withdraws Its Application from Facebook’s Libra Association

PayPal withdraws its application from Facebook’s Libra association, a group of members to oversee the governance of Libra network. Since the announcement of Facebook -initiated cryptocurrency project, Libra in June 2019, policymakers and governments around the world have backlash the project claiming that it could risk destabilizing the monetary system.

Some even questioned if Facebook who in the past hasn’t behaved responsibly when it comes to handling user data and privacy could be trusted to expand into financial services. Many have called to halt the development of the project and promised to block should Facebook-lead Libra seek approval to operate in their country.

G-7 members warned in July that it would not let Libra proceed until all regulatory concerns had been addressed. Rumors suggest payment firm PayPal may be concerned that by formally signing and accepting membership in the Facebook ‘s Libra association may affect their so-far positive relationships with the regulators and hence decided to withdraw.

Due to ongoing rumors of some association members who are reevaluating their position to participate as a founding member in the project, Facebook ‘s Libra team recently asked all 28 members including PayPal to reconfirm their participation and join in a first council meeting planned on Oct 14, 2019.

PayPal is the first to withdraw from the Facebook -initiated cryptocurrency project– Libra. A PayPal spokesperson said it “[remained] supportive of Libra’s aspirations” but had chosen to focus on its own core businesses.

On Friday, the Libra Association’s head of policy and communications, Dante Disparte, said in a statement that,

“We recognize that change is hard and that each organization that started this journey will have to make its own assessment of risks and rewards of being committed to seeing through the change that Libra promises.

We look forward to the first Libra Council meeting in 10 days and will be sharing updates following that, including details of the 1,500 entities that have indicated enthusiastic interest to participate.”