Shopify will look for ways to create a digital payment infrastructure, specifically aimed at entrepreneurs.
Shopify, the renowned Canadian-based digital commerce company, published a statement on the company’s official blog last Friday, February 21st. That day, it announced its alliance with the Libra Association, the digital asset promoted by the social media giant Facebook. In this way, Shopify becomes the last company to join the stablecoin movement that prepares the social network.
Specifically, a month earlier, Vodafone left the Libra project, arguing that they would be working on their digital payment system. Vodafone recognized that its main objective is to “work collectively” to create an entire network of virtual payments that have no limitations and that can be presented anywhere in the world. Shopify now manages to join the Libra project, even though Vodafone and other service providers have given up their inclusion.
The Libra project was born as an initiative promoted by Facebook. The development was announced last June 2019. With said initiative, they hope to develop a whole system of global payments using a stablecoin supported by a fund in fiat money. In the last movements of the project, it was known that a government board that will have control of the Libra Association was formed. Although Facebook is not among the board of its leadership council, it is Calibra, which is a company linked to the social network giant.
Currently, some important companies are part of the great project that was promoted by Facebook, some of them are: The World Bank for Women, PayU, Uber, Lyft, Kiva, Mercy Corps, Rabbit Capital, Coinbase, Xapo, Anchorage, Bison Trails, Creative Destruction Lab, Andreessen Horowits, Spotify, Union Square Ventures, Ferdetch, Illiad, among others.
At the beginning of this project, companies such as Paypal, Mastercard, Visa, eBay, Stripe, Mercado Pago, and Booking Holdings would have been part of such an association, but most of them left the project, even before the council leading the stablecoin was formed. Vodafone was in the project until last January 2020.
On the other hand, about the inclusion of Shopify in the Libra Association, the company’s blog ensures that its main task is to create a better infrastructure for its customers and to promote them in their projects.
“Our mission has always been to support the business trip of more than one million merchants of our platform. This means dedicating ourselves to have transparent commissions and easy access to capital and ensure the privacy and security of our merchants. We want to create an infrastructure that empowers more entrepreneurs throughout the world”, Shopify said on its official blog.
When exposing certain reasons of its interest in Libra, the statement details that the current infrastructure of the entire world financial system was not designed for the versatility and changes of the needs of the commerce that is generated on the Internet, so this project could assume much of this need that would change everything done in commercial matters.
On the new Shopify alliance, the communications director of the Libra Association, Dante Disparte, mentioned that this addition is a source of pride and that this company will undoubtedly bring wealth to the project.
“As a multinational trading platform with more than one million businesses in approximately 175 countries, Shopify Inc, brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the Libra project. Shopify joins an active group of Libra Association members committed to achieving a safe, transparent and friendly implementation with the users of global payment systems, which break the financial barriers that billions of people have”, he concluded.
By María Rodríguez
