Shopify joins Libra Association in a reversal of a trend that should bring comfort to Facebook. In a post on their website, Shopify announced their decision to join the Libra Association.
Admission to the Libra Association does not come cheap. Each member is expected to cough up 10 million dollars and are rewarded with the initial guarantors of the blockchain.
This would be the first good news in a long time for Facebook as many big names dropped out of the association citing mounting regulatory concerns from the world governments. The biggest names include Paypal and Visa. Visa decided to go its own route and partner with Coinbase to offer cryptocurrency services via their Visa debit cards.
Libra has not yet gotten off the ground. In fact it has a long way to go. However, with shopify on their list they have just included a large user base that transacts online and all over the world. Libra would be an ideal fit for Shopify if you think about it.
From the Website
As online commerce becomes increasingly borderless, it’s easy to forget that payments and the value exchange of goods are not a solved problem everywhere. Much of the world’s financial infrastructure was not built to handle the scale and needs of internet commerce.
Our mission is to make commerce better for everyone and to do that, we spend a lot of our time thinking about how to make commerce better in parts of the world where money and banking could be far better. That’s why we decided to become a member of the Libra Association. This is one step, but not the only step we’ll be taking to be a part of the solution to this global problem.
As a member of the Libra Association, we will work collectively to build a payment network that makes money easier to access and supports merchants and consumers everywhere.
Our mission has always been to support the entrepreneurial journey of the more than one million merchants on our platform. That means advocating for transparent fees and easy access to capital, and ensuring the security and privacy of our merchants’ customer data. We want to create an infrastructure that empowers more entrepreneurs around the world.
We’re excited to be part of the Libra Association and look forward to how the project may improve commerce everywhere. Shopify joins Libra Association in a reversal of trend.
What is the Libra Association?
The Libra currency is built on the “Libra Blockchain.” Because it is intended to address a global audience, the software that implements the Libra Blockchain is open source — designed so that anyone can build on it, and billions of people can depend on it for their financial needs. Imagine an open, interoperable ecosystem of financial services that developers and organizations will build to help people and businesses hold and transfer Libra for everyday use. With the proliferation of smartphones and wireless data, increasingly more people will be online and able to access Libra through these new services. To enable the Libra ecosystem to achieve this vision over time, the blockchain has been built from the ground up to prioritize scalability, security, efficiency in storage and throughput, and future adaptability. Keep reading for an overview of the Libra Blockchain, or read the technical paper.
The unit of currency is called “Libra.” Libra will need to be accepted in many places and easy to access for those who want to use it. In other words, people need to have confidence that they can use Libra and that its value will remain relatively stable over time. Unlike the majority of cryptocurrencies, Libra is fully backed by a reserve of real assets. A basket of bank deposits and short-term government securities will be held in the Libra Reserve for every Libra that is created, building trust in its intrinsic value. The Libra Reserve will be administered with the objective of preserving the value of Libra over time.
