The information in this article comes fromCoinDesk、Modern Consensus、The Block
OdailyTranslator | Azuma
British telecommunications giant Vodafone has become the eighth major company to withdraw from the Libra Association.
Dante Disparte, director of policy and communications for the Libra Association, confirmed to Modern Consensus via email that Vodafone is no longer a member of the association. Disparte noted in a statement: “While the composition of the association’s membership may change over time, Libra’s governance and technical design ensures that its payment system will remain resilient. The association is continuing its efforts to achieve a secure, transparent and the consumer-friendly Libra payment system."
The Libra Association has lost eight founding members since its official launch last October. PayPal, Mastercard, Visa, Mercado Pago, eBay, Stripe, and Booking have already "retired" before Vodafone.
A series of changes has reduced the number of potential funders for the project from 28 to 20.According to Facebook's original vision for the Libra project, founding members would invest at least $10 million to fund the Libra Association's operating costs and launch an incentive program to drive adoption of the project.
Unlike the many payment companies mentioned above who opted out due to regulatory pressure, Vodafone said that its exit had other motives. In a statement to CoinDesk, it said,The company simply wants to change direction and devote resources previously planned for Libra to its "well-established and successful" digital payment service M-Pesa.Vodafone launched the payment service in 2007 through Safaricom and Vodacom, the largest mobile network operators in Kenya and Tanzania, and now plans to expand M-Pesa beyond the six African countries.
"Vodafone believes that affordable financial services can be most effectively brought to the world's poor by focusing on M-Pesa. We have stated from the outset that Vodafone's aspiration is to make a genuine contribution to wider financial inclusion. We Remains fully committed to this goal."
The Libra Association plans to admit new members in 2020, a person familiar with the matter said. More than 1,500 companies are currently awaiting approval to join, and new members need approval from approximately two-thirds of existing members.
CoinDesk also reported that M-Pesa currently supports remittances in a number of different currencies. A person familiar with Vodafone's thinking said the platform could accept stablecoins in the future, possibly even including Libra.Vodafone spokesman Steve Shepperson-Smith also mentioned: "We will continue to pay attention to the development of the Libra Association and do not rule out the possibility of working together again in the future."
Libra was initially slated to launch in mid-2020, but there are doubts about whether that goal will be achieved. Two weeks ago, Facebook CEO Zuckerberg released the company's vision for 2030, but there was no mention of Libra in it. However, it is not without positive news. Last Thursday, the Libra Association officially announced the establishment of the Libra Project Technical Steering Committee (TSC), which will coordinate the design and development of the Libra platform.
Last week, another overseas blockchain media, The Block, released a new survey report. According to the survey results, 72 of the 106 respondents from the venture capital, financial services and digital asset industries (67.9%) chose "no" when asked whether Libra will be launched in 2020 , only 34 (31.1%) of the respondents answered "yes".
Despite the constant speculation, Libra is clearly not giving up its ambitions easily. Whether we can see Libra released in 2020, or whether Libra can be released in the form Facebook originally envisioned, only waits and sees.
