British payments startup Checkout.com has become the latest member of the Facebook-led Libra Association.
It’s notably the first payment processor to join the organization after giants like Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, and Stripe decided to leave it after it drew ire from regulators who worried its initial plan of launching a global cryptocurrency backed by a basket of fiat currencies and short-term U.S. Treasury bonds could heavily disrupt the financial system.
Over the last few weeks, however, various firms, including e-commerce giant Shopify and crypto brokerage firm Tagomi, joined the Libra association, which initially lost eight its founding members over regulatory concerns.
On a blog post, Checkout.com founder and CEO Guillaume Pousaz wrote that blockchain technology should be regulated when it comes to payment processing and noted other members of the organization agreed, adding:
In the past few years, we have witnessed from afar the birth of various digitally native currencies. We are technologists at heart and have always been fascinated by blockchain and the potential benefits it could bring to global transaction processing.
Per Pousaz, regulation should be “integral” because of its “unique ability to protect the ecosystem from systemic abuses.” With such regulation, the CEO added, the group believes technological advancements alone would “fail to provide the secure and stable payments infrastructure required to drive mass adoption, impeding its progress.”
Dante Disparte, the Libra Association’s head of policy and communications, noted the group was “thrilled” to have Checkout.com as a member, and added in an emailed statement to CNBC:
The organization joins a dynamic and growing 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.
The Switzerland-based Association, it’s worth noting, recently changed its project to pursue several stablecoins tied to the value of government-issued currencies, instead of launching a single stablecoin in a permissionless network.
Featured image via Unsplash.
