Facebooks Libra forms governing council after big names abandon the project

Within the association, Facebook remains a key player, with Calibra CEO and former Facebook blockchain lead David Marcus taking a seat on the five-person board. Other board members include Katie Haun, a general partner with Andreessen Horowitz, Wences Cesares, CEO of Xapo, Patrick Ellis, general counsel at PayU, and Matthew Davie, chief strategy officer of Kiva.

In addition to Calibra, the association consists of Coinbase, Xapo, Anchorage, Bison Trails, Creative Destruction Lab, Andreessen Horowitz, Thrive Capital, Ribbit Capital, Union Square Ventures, Breakthrough Initiatives, Illiad, Vodafone, Farfetch, Uber, Lyft, Kiva, Mercy Corps, Women’s World Banking, Spotify and PayU, according to a press release.

The announcement comes following a number of major departures. Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Booking Holdings, eBay, Stripe, and Mercado Pago, announced their withdrawals from Libra, with some citing concerns over the regulatory backlash faced by the project, according to CoinDesk.

Now, it is unclear when Libra will actually launch. While Facebook initially targeted an early 2020 launch date, recent statements by Zuckerberg have put this timeline into doubt. However, it appears that any delay to the launch will be a result of its regulatory issues, rather than technical concerns.