Disclaimer: This article previously stated that PayPal was possibly withdrawing from the Libra Association. It has since been updated to reflect its official withdrawal. Payment processor PayPal has officially left the Libra Association, the governing body of Facebook’s Libra digital currency. Libra “Pre-work” is not enough for PayPal As news agency Financial Times reported on Oct. 3, PayPal did not attend a meeting of 28 Libra backers on Thursday. Following the payment provider’s no-show, a spokesperson for the firm told Cointelegraph on Oct. 4 that it officially left the association, adding: “We remain supportive of Libra’s aspirations and look forward …

Facebook’s Libra digital currency developers have released a new roadmap outlining steps toward its mainnet launch. The update from the Libra Foundation published on Oct. 2 highlights various points of interest for both developers and those who operate the protocol’s nodes. Devs focus on mainnet preparations Currently running as a testnet, Libra aims to iron out technical challenges prior to a mainnet launch, yet without an official launch date. The roadmap reads: “Launching the Testnet has allowed the team to quickly improve Libra Core by making it easy to troubleshoot, diagnose, and resolve software edge cases. The Testnet demonstrates Libra …

Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Stripe are reportedly unsure whether they wish to become paid-up participants in Facebook’s Libra digital currency. According to a Bloomberg article on Oct. 2 — citing “people familiar with the matter” — the four payment giants have reservations about the social network’s project. Sources: Facebook “oversold” regulator support The companies formed part of the cohort which originally said they wished to act as nodes for Libra, subject to a fee of $10 million. Libra has since faced a major backlash from regulators worldwide and the four now share concerns their own reputations could suffer. According to …

Mark Branson, head of Swiss financial supervisor FINMA, has said he is more concerned with the dark corners of cryptocurrency than he is with Facebook’s stablecoin Libra. Switzerland will not make Libra impossible On Oct. 1, Reuters reported that Branson is more wary of crypto projects that develop without official scrutiny — and said Libra “is being done transparently.” Branson added: “I am much more nervous about projects which develop in a dark corner in the financial system somewhere, spread themselves out through cyberspace and one day are too big to be stopped.” Branson explained that Libra will face the …

Executive Vice President-Designate of the European Commission, Margrethe Vestager, has questioned the motives behind Facebook’s forthcoming Libra stablecoin. In an interview with the Financial Services Union of Denmark, a fragment of which was published on Oct. 1, Vestager addressed the possible impact from Libra’s launch — such as competition due to Facebook’s multimillion user base and distortion of competition in the payment services market. Vestager argued: "It's a pretty new thing that we are starting to question something that does not exist yet. But it is so far in the future that we cannot tell if this is going to …

Newly leaked audio from Q&A sessions between Facebook’s CEO and employees has revealed Facebook’s early strategy for Libra's launch. On Oct. 1, tech news site The Verge published audio and text from two internal meetings held at Facebook in July. Along with major topics such as Facebook’s potential breakup by regulators, Mark Zuckerberg devoted a significant part of the sessions to the company’s much-discussed cryptocurrency project Libra, which was officially unveiled in June. Consultative approach Zuckerberg underlined the consultative approach around Libra, stressing that both Facebook and the Libra Association want to do their best to solve a number of …

Facebook’s crypto project Libra will potentially create a “shadow banking” system, according to the banks at the Federal Advisory Council (FAC). U.S. banks fear Libra will reduce payment volumes After the United States Federal Reserve asked some of the nation’s largest banks about Libra, the banks expressed their negative stance towards the project, outlining the risks of potential decline in demand-deposit accounts and bank payment volumes, Bloomberg reports Sept. 30. Libra and similar stablecoin projects, where a digital coin is pegged to an underlying value consisting of one or more fiat currencies, also pose a possible challenge to the bank …

Coming every Sunday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link. Top Stories This Week Crypto carnage: Bloodbath for altcoins as Bitcoin crashes It’s been a week to forget in the crypto world. Bitcoin (BTC) prices crashed hard on Tuesday — rapidly dropping from $9,800 to $8,150 over the course of the day. The double-digit percentage losses saw the overall crypto market cap lose a whopping $20 billion in less …

The crypto industry is on its way from the epic early days, when it was a technological phenomenon exclusive to a limited group of techs, scientists and enthusiasts, to its final destination: a financial commodity intended for use by everyone. Of course, the journey has just begun, and it is riddled with potholes, traps and a high level of resistance. The extent of the crypto revolution is total, disruptive, world-wide and irreversible. But its final destination is pretty neat: a screenshot of an average day on planet Earth by 2050 shows clearly showing human beings using a financial commodity called …

Facebook’s chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg is in talks with the House Financial Services Committee to testify on Libra, Facebook’s stablecoin. Discussions on market power and Libra According to a Bloomberg article from Sept. 26, Facebook is currently trying to get its chief operating officer Sandberg in front of the House Financial Services Committee, perhaps as soon as next month. Sandberg is expected to testify on the social media giant’s global market power and its plans to launch its stablecoin Libra in 2020, a source familiar with the talks told Bloomberg. Sanberg’s previously testified in front of the Senate Intelligence …

The Libra Association is in talks with European Union regulators, according to its managing director, according to an interview with Reuters, Sept. 27. Bertrand Perez said that discussions were ongoing and there was still work to do, in one of his first public appearances on the job at a blockchain conference in Geneva, where the association is based. Facebook’s Libra faced a cold reception in France and Germany Since Facebook announced its intention to launch the Libra cryptocurrency, it has faced scrutiny from regulatory bodies across Europe and North America. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has resorted to wining and dining …

When Facebook published the Libra white paper in June 2019, shockwaves were felt across the crypto markets the world over. Triggering the end of a long bear market, Bitcoin soared past the iconic $10,000 mark, and many prominent altcoins rose on the back of a phenomenon now known as the “Libra Effect.” As so often occurs alongside milestone cryptocurrency announcements, Facebook’s venture into digital payments was also met with a barrage of criticism. Regulators and politicians on both sides of the Atlantic are calling either for intense scrutiny of the project or an outright ban. Fears abound that by launching …