The Libra Association has signed up Canadian e-commerce platform Shopify as its newest member as the troubled crypto project looks to get back on track.
Libra has lost several founding members in recent months for a variety of reasons, the most prominent of which was the massive amount of scrutiny leveled at the project. The association was originally made up of 27 founding members; however, several early backers such as Visa (NYSE:V), PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL), and Mastercard (NYSE:MA) all jumped ship before the founding charter was signed, leaving just 21 members.
Vodafone was the most recent firm to quit The Libra Association, although for a different reason. The British telecom giant said it intends to dedicate resources previously allocated for the project to its own well-established digital payment service M-Pesa, which it plans to expand beyond the six African nations currently served.
In a rare piece of good news for Libra, Shopify said it is linking up with the venture to “work collectively to build a payment network that makes money easier to access and supports merchants and consumers everywhere.” The e-commerce platform has around 1 million businesses from 175 countries on its books and will join other Libra Association members in contributing at least US$10 million and operating a node that processes transactions for Libra, and will also leverage its expertise in managing payment networks.
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Following the news that Shopify would join the Libra Association, Libra’s head of policy and communications Dante Disparte said the group was “proud” to welcome its newest member and talked up the troubled initiative. “Shopify joins an active group of Libra Association members committed to achieving a safe, transparent, and consumer-friendly implementation of a global payment system that breaks down financial barriers for billions of people,” Disparte said.
Libra is slated to launch in June of this year despite the huge amount of pushback against the project.
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