After a long, painful string of defections, the Libra Association finally has some good news to announce. A new member, retail e-commerce site Shopify, made the $25 million commitment to join on Feb. 21.
Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga told the Financial Times on Monday that important members of the Libra Association wouldn’t give a firm commitment to follow local laws in all circumstances, including know your client (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) regulations.
Facebook’s wounded Libra Association formally voted itself into existence on October 14, electing a board and choosing officers. The ceremony was overshadowed by the loss of seven original members including Mastercard and Visa.
IBM is teaming up with blockchain builder Chainyard on a new supply chain management platform that has attracted participants from a half dozen industries. While many major coalition blockchain projects are industry specific—like Big Blue’s TradeLens Consortium for shipping and its Food Trust alliance for produce—the Trust Your Supplier network is focused on documenting and verifying supplier information of all types.
