Yesterday, non-profit Libra Association announced it voted to establish a Technical Steering Committee (TSC) for the Libra project. The TSC will oversee and coordinate the technical design and development of the Libra network. Late last year Libra made other changes, including forming new companies and updating its stated mission to emphasize payments rather than currency.
Libra is the stable coin and payments network initially founded by Facebook. The blockchain platform has attracted 21 corporate members, although some big names such a Mastercard, Visa and Paypal withdrew, apparently over concerns about increased regulatory oversight.
The TSC will direct the technical roadmap for the Libra network, form technical working groups, assist in developing code and build a Libra developer community.
In the coming months, the TSC plans to publish its technical governance framework, including a process to enable feedback from the open-source community and evaluate proposals.
The stated goal is to make the Libra project self-governing and independent of any single organization’s control. The Association has elected five members to the Technical Committee.
Diogo Monica, Co-Founder and President of digital asset custodian Anchorage will take a seat at the Libra TSC. He’s best known for his roles as security lead at both Square and Docker.
Also on the committee is Joe Lallouz, CEO of the blockchain infrastructure company Bison Trails. “Our goal is to ensure the Libra network is decentralized, secure, and well-orchestrated, with the infrastructure in place to support billions of transactions,” said Lallouz.
Other members are George Cabrera III, Libra Core Product Lead at Facebook’s Calibra, Nick Grossman a Partner at Union Square Ventures, and Ric Shreves, Director of Emerging Technology at NGO Mercy Corps.
Corporate changes
Despite the regulatory backlash, Libra is making moves. Last year the Geneva registered organization updated its Articles of Association, altering its mission. Previously its purpose was “empowering billions of people through a new global currency.”
The new mission is “working with multilateral organizations, the private sector, regulators and communities around the world to create a lower cost, more accessible payment tool built on the Libra Blockchain that will facilitate a more global payment system, providing financial or other services to those most in need of such services.”
It also set up two Geneva operating subsidiaries Libra Networks and Libra Networks II. For both, the stated aim is “provision of services in the fields of finance and technology, as well as the development and production of software and related infrastructure, in particular in connection with investment activities, payment transactions, funding, identity management, data analysis, big data, distributed databases (blockchain) and other technologies.”
The same three people manage both firms. They are Libra Association MD and COO Bertrand Perez (ex Paypal), Libra head of business development Kurt Hemecker (also ex Paypal) and Denis Boivin, a tax partner at BDO.
