This Tuesday, it became clear that the British telecom company Vodafone has left the Libra Association. That is now the last, or the 8th one, to be precise, big company that has made a decision not to cooperate with the council created to manage the Facebook-run global digital currency.
Instead of working with, as some might say, troubled Libra, Vodafone chose to redirect its funds towards its well-established and long-lasting partnership with M-Pesa, which is already successfully serving six nations in Africa.
Now Vodafone has joined other companies like PayPal, Mastercard, Visa, Mercado Pago, eBay, Stripe and Booking Holdings in cutting further cooperation with the Facebook-led crypto project. The payment companies most likely left due to the potential of increased regulatory scrutiny.
Let us remind you that back in June 2019, Facebook announced that it will launch its own cryptocurrency in partnership with other members – that is how the Libra Association was actually established. However, after a certain time, the project started experiencing serious issues and eventually ran into trouble with several regulators around the world.
Thus, later in October, many started declaring that cryptocurrencies like Libra impose an actual threat on the global financial system.
In response to that, a Vodafone spokesperson said:
“Vodafone Group has decided to withdraw from the Libra Association…We have said from the outset that Vodafone’s desire is to make a genuine contribution to extending financial inclusion. We remain fully committed to that goal and feel we can make the most contribution by focusing our efforts on [mobile payments platform] M-Pesa.”
As a result of such turmoil, the official launch of the cryptocurrency roadmap that was expected to be released in the first half of 2020 will be pushed back. Dante Disparte, head of policy and communication with the Libra Association, noted:
“We’d rather go slow and get it right, than assign a deadline to launch that keeps us from solving the problem of payments for those who need this solution most.”
