After several months of struggling with criticism from regulators, legislators and politicians from all over the world, the Libra Association – the entity responsible for the global digital currency, which is scheduled to be launched next year, has been formally constituted. In Geneva, Switzerland, the founding act of the Association was signed in the country where it has its headquarters.
Members of the Libra Association with Facebook sign the founding act
The formal sealing of the Facebook-based Libra Association took place a few days after the seven entities that had originally declared to join the Association changed their minds, largely due to regulatory concerns. These are Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Booking Holidays, eBay, Stripe and Mercado Pago. Therefore, the Association is currently composed of the following entities:
On the occasion of the signing of the charter, a formal board of directors of the Association was formed, consisting of five members, including David Marcus, also head of Calibra, a Facebook subsidiary responsible for the financial side of the venture, including a wallet for the interception of the future digital currency. Other board members include Katie Haun, partner at Andreesen Horowitz, Wences Cesares, CEO of Xapo, Patric Ellis, head of lawyers at PayU, and Matthew Davie, chief strategy officer at Kiva.
As a consolation in the information given on October 14th, the day before the signing of the founding act, the Libra Association reported that more than 1500 entities have expressed interest in joining, of which 180 meet the membership criteria. In order for a new member to be admitted to the Association, the consent of two thirds of the existing members is required.
The target number of members of the Association is 100.
According to the Libra White Paper, the Association is to have a target of 100 members, and one of its tasks is to make technical decisions on the future digital currency. For this purpose, a special token was created – Libra Investment Token, which is also to serve as a protection allowing the members of the Association to earn interest on the basket of currencies with which Libra is to be associated. It is now known that it will consist of the US dollar (50%), euro (18%), yen (14%), British pound (11%) and Singapore dollar (7%).
To raise concerns about Libra’s regulation, David Marcus issued a written statement in September stating that Libra is open to regulatory oversight and that the project is not intended to replace the US dollar. On the occasion of the signing of the Memorandum of Association, no official information was provided to confirm that Libra is still scheduled to be operational next year.
