Coinspeaker
Government Threats Visa, Mastercard and Others that Choose Libra, Says VanEck Director

On Saturday we reported how, after PayPal Holdings Inc. abandoned Facebook’s association Libra, the other big payment giants followed its example.

Mastercard, Visa, eBay, Stripe and Mercado Pago have also pulled out and it seems this could become pretty large obstacle to the development of this cryptocurrency.

Director at VanEck Gabor Gurbacs said the companies that abandoned Libra Association were actually pressured into leaving.

As per Gurbacs, there is growing concern for Facebook’s ability to defeat coercing set up by the regulators. Let’s not forget that just two weeks ago there was a series of leaked tapes from meetings between Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook employees that exuviated light on Libra.

Just for reminder, Zuckerberg then said Libra was deliberately announced too early in order to accumulate feedback from the community.

Zuckerberg stated:

“We have a test going in India. We’re working in Mexico and a bunch of other countries to have this rolled out broadly. The hope is to get that rolled out in a lot of places with existing currencies before the end of this year.”

He also explained to his employees that Libra was intentionally announced earlier than expected, and that was in part in charge of the regulatory blowup. Zuckerberg obviously had wanted the project to receive feedback from the global ecosystem in a more “consultative” approach:

“But part of what we’re trying to do overall on these big projects now that touch very socially important aspects of society is have a more consultative approach. So not just show up and say, ‘Alright, here we’re launching this. Here’s a product, your app got updated, now you can start buying Libras and sending them around.”

So, logically when that happened, central banks around the world have replied with censure for this digital currency.
The enormous pressure led Gurbacs to wind up with a conclusion that markets “aren’t free,” and accentuate the importance of cryptocurrency.

He tweeted:

> Every company that is leaving #Libra is likely, in some ways, forced to do that. It’s unfortunate and I am sorry that capital markets aren’t free.

> Now you have a first hand understanding why censorship-resistance is important!

> Welcome to #Bitcoin!https://t.co/xyiWMHJHuz

— Gabor Gurbacs (@gaborgurbacs) October 11, 2019

Also, he concluded that the Senate itself has threaten the big companies with the letter it sent.

He tweeted:

> This is the type of letter executives at @stripe, @Mastercard and @visa (former @Libra_ members) have received.
> Many executives may have chosen not to experiment and innovate in order to avoid regulatory pressure!Sad!
> America can do better!
> Source: https://t.co/M36bkEKJU9 pic.twitter.com/kF3AXf9Xvd

— Gabor Gurbacs (@gaborgurbacs) October 12, 2019

The leaked letter was sent to Patrick Collison, the CEO and co-founder of Stripe Inc.

In the letter signed by two US senators Brian Schatz and Sherrod Brown it is stated that they are deeply concerned about Libra because the key questions about risks to consumers, remained unanswered. After blaming it all on Facebook obviously wanting to rule the world, they are making a direct threat saying that:

“If you take this on, you can expect a high level of scrutiny from regulators not only on Libra-related payment activities, but on all payment activities.”

The whole project has been under rigorous investigation by the regulators and the US Government as well. On 23 October, Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg will show up before the House Committee on Financial Services to try to clarify all things surrounding Libra and its planned uprise. When in July CEO of Libra, David Marcus testified in front of the senate, some of its key concerns wee money laundering, financing terrorists, etc.

Government Threats Visa, Mastercard and Others that Choose Libra, Says VanEck Director

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