Meta now sits on the board of COPA, the Alliance encouraging the use of cryptocurrencies. They also want to remove patents from the crypto industry.
In Short
- Meta pledged not to enforce its cryptocurrency patents.
- The company is considering selling its share of the Diem Partnership.
Meta Releases Bitcoin-related Patents. Meta, formerly Facebook, joined the board of the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA). This group encourages adopting and using Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency-related technologies.
To be part of COPA, the company led by Mark Zuckerberg pledged not to sue anyone for its patents related to cryptocurrencies, with only one exception: “defensive reasons.” The intention is to make the patents “effectively freely available for all to use,” the organization stressed today, January 31.
The Alliance sees the arrival of Meta to its board as “solidifying” its position as a “leading cryptocurrency patent association.” COPA is building a “collaborative environment” focused on open source to “protect core technologies for all users.”
“Meta’s leadership at COPA underscores the importance of protecting open source technologies. Companies large and small can foster innovation by collaborating on critical infrastructure.”
COPA press release.
COPA was founded in September 2021 by former Twitter CEO and fervent bitcoiner Jack Dorsey. Another goal of the Alliance is to keep bitcoin as open as possible and prevent innovative technologies from being blocked through patents.
Any company working in cryptocurrencies, regardless of whether or not it has registered patents, will be eligible to join the Alliance. More than 20 companies in the cryptocurrency sector, such as Coinbase, MicroStrategy, Kraken, and OKCoin, among others, compose The COPA.
Meta and the sale of Diem
Meta’s integration into COPA is not the only recent move the company has made regarding cryptocurrencies. The company is studying the possible sale of the assets of the Diem Association, of which it controls a third. The goal would be to return capital to its investor members.
According to people familiar with the matter, senior Diem executives would talk with investment bankers to find a way to sell the project’s intellectual property. It is worth remembering that Diem, formerly called Libra, intended to enter the stable cryptocurrency business (stablecoins). Still, the project failed to materialize due to the pressures they received from several countries.
However, the possible sale of Diem does not stop Meta’s efforts to continue trying to enter the cryptocurrency industry in one way or another. While not creating a cryptocurrency, they would do so with a digital wallet. Meta filed a registration application in Brazil to launch a bitcoin-supported wallet. The company must wait 90 days to determine if the Brazilian authorities approved or denied it.