Meta Joins Crypto Open Patent Alliance in Support of Open Source Tech

Meta has joined the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), pledging to make its core crypto patents free for everyone to use. The group counts Block, Coinbase, Kraken, MicroStrategy, and Uniswap as members, among others.

Facebook parent company Meta has joined the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), a group that calls for open patents when it comes to crypto and blockchain-related technologies. The group published a post on Jan 31, welcoming the social media giant and saying that Shayne O’Reilly would represent Meta.

As a member of COPA, Meta will not enforce core cryptocurrency patents against anyone — except for defensive reasons. This means that any patents outside of this condition will be free for anyone to use.

Meta’s interest in the crypto space has been apparent these past few years. First with its Diem initiative, which happened before its rebranding to Meta. Now, its primary focus is on the metaverse and NFTs, and it’s clear that there may be more up its sleeve.

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey also commented on the development, commending it by simply saying in a tweet that “this is great.” Dorsey has made statements to the end that the crypto market is best served by catering to the interests of everyone, not just the already rich.

COPA identifies as the “leading cryptocurrency patent alliance” and is focused on building an open-sourced environment to “protect core technologies for all users.” It is working with financial services companies, crypto companies, and established firms in its cross-industry initiative of collaboration. It has over 30 members, including Block, Coinbase, Kraken, MicroStrategy, and Uniswap.

Silvergate purchases blockchain payment network assets from Diem

In other news, there has been some progress with Meta’s decision to sell assets from its Diem initiative. The company announced that it wished to sell the stablecoin project and its assets in late Jan. 2022 and was looking for buyers. Regulatory hurdles were the primary reason behind the decision to sell Diem.

On Jan 31, Silvergate, a financial infrastructure solutions services in the digital assets market, revealed that it had acquired intellectual property and other assets related to Diem. It aims to use this technology to create a Silvergate-issue stablecoin for global payments.

Meta will now turn its attention to the metaverse, which it is working intensely on. The company has reportedly poached 100 employees from Microsoft in its bid to ramp up its efforts.