the association Libra officially put on …

The association Libra, which must manage the future virtual currency desired by Facebook, was officially set up Monday by 21 founding members. Of the 28 originally announced at the launch of the project in June, seven have retired in the meantime.

By signing Libra's charter on Monday, the founding companies became members of the Libra Council, the governing body of the association, according to a statement received during the night from Monday to Tuesday.

Bertrand Perez, secretary general of the association, welcomed with AFP to have today "21 fully motivated members, who believe in the project".

"We have a total guarantee of their involvement from this day, so we are confident enough for the project"he continued, saying that the recent defections of Paypal, Visa, Mastercard or eBay did not undermine the Libra initiators' determination.

The digital currency Libra must offer an alternative mode of payment to traditional banking channels, an upheaval that raises skepticism and resistance. If a launch was originally planned for mid-2020, this context of distrust leads Mr. Perez not to rule out a later start.

Launch date postponed?

"What we want is to build a platform that is solid, that is there to last and that will survive in the long term. In this perspective, (…) if the discussions that we are having with the regulators require more time, because we have more to deepen, more things to bring and that we must postpone the launch date of a few quarters, I would say that at the scale of a project like this, it will not cause us any problem", he said.

Among the 21 founding members of Libra, are the PayU online payment company, the Vodafone and Iliad telecommunications groups, the Uber, Spotify and Farfetch platforms, blockchain players such as Anchorage, Xapo and Coinbase. venture capitalists like Andreessen Horowitz, Ribbit Capital or non-profit organizations like Kiva or Mercy Corps.

Read also : Virtual currency: Facebook's libra will submit an application for authorization in Switzerland

The project is provoking, however, in the United States as in Europe, the growing hostility of many regulators and governments who are worried about Facebook's bad reputation for confidentiality and the protection of personal data, and fear that Libra will be used to deceive the taxman.

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg will be convened on Oct. 23 by a US parliamentary committee who wants to review the project.

In Europe, Bruno Le Maire, French Minister of the Economy and Finance, in particular, warned that the Libra represented in his opinion a threat to the "monetary sovereignty of States".

"Opposition phase"

For Mr Perez, it is important to distinguish in this respect the policy dimension and the regulatory dimension.

With these, discussions are "constructive" and "we see that we can provide answers", he believes. "It may take some time to formalize and reassure them but it's going in the right direction"he says.

To politicians, Mr. Perez responds: "What is certain is that we are really determined that the solution we are proposing really makes sense for many people in the world, that it brings real added value and answers that today are not not made".

"Any innovation is always disturbing and will always disturb people or systems that will try to oppose but passed an opposition phase, no real innovation could be stopped because from the moment it makes sense, she will inevitably appear", wants to believe the secretary general of the association Libra.