Shopify joins Libra Association

Canadian e-commerce company Shopify Inc said on Friday it would join Libra Association, a group that manages Facebook Inc led efforts to launch a global digital currency, Libra.

„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.”, Shopify said in a statement.

„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.”, according to the pres release.

„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.”

Several companies including Vodafone Group PLC, Paypal Holdings Inc and Mastercard Inc have exited the association in recent months.

Facebook announced in June last year its plan to launch Libra in partnership with other members of the association, but the project soon ran into trouble with skeptical regulators around the world.