PoundThe project Facebook on the cryptocurrency ecosystem, he had to deal with a not particularly favorable day. On Friday, in fact, five of the founding members of the Libra association, in support of Mark Zuckerberg's future currency, in fact withdrew their support. However, these are not marginal partners: eBay, Stripe, Visa e Mastercard, in addition to the online payment platform Market.
The abandonment of these five giants of electronic payments follows that of PayPal, a week ago, inflicting a severe blow to the project. And analysts certainly do not underestimate this event, stating that Libra would have needed the knowledge of these operators to make its Libra a success.
"We believe that Libra will fail, without the involvement of the main payment actors, as they should have brought a profound and essential experience in payments, and because they are trusted brands in the sector," MoffettNathanson analysts wrote in a statement.
To make matters worse, there is evidence that the abandonments of these operators are taking place in a context of growing criticism of the Libra project, which was presented in June 2019 and which immediately met the skepticism of politicians, regulators and non-organizations. profit. Facebook blockchain boss David Marcus has been summoned to testify before Congress a few weeks later, while Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to be on Capitol Hill later this month.
If in the United States it has certainly not been received with the best favors, the project has had harsh criticism here too, with regulators complaining that the details of the cryptocurrency have not been fully explained, and that the project could disturb the financial market balances.
Recall that Libra is a global digital currency proposal that will be managed by the Libra Association, a monetary authority that Facebook hoped could have 100 partners at the time of the launch, scheduled for next year. The members were supposed to manage useful nodes to facilitate transactions on the Libra network, and to have up to $ 10 million in the portfolio to get the project started.
Of the remaining founding members of Libra, those interviewed (such as Mercy Corps, Anchorage, Kiva and Andreessen Horowitz) said they wanted to remain engaged in the project. But for how long?
