Meta, formerly known as Facebook, joins the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), a nonprofit crypto community founded by The Block, formerly known as Square Inc.
Crypto Open Patent Alliance, as reported on their website Open Crypto, ” is a community of like-minded people and companies formed to encourage the adoption and advancement of cryptocurrency technologies and to remove patents as a barrier to growth and innovation.”
This community hosts 30 companies well-known in the cryptocurrency industry including, Kraken, Microstrategy, Uniswap, Chaincode Labs, and OkCoin. Through COPA, META will pledge to never use their crypto-technology patents against anyone, “except for defensive reasons.” This pledge effectively makes its patents freely available for all to use.
Shayne O’Reilly, the head of Meta’s company licensing, will join board members from The Block and Coinbase. Nine members will govern the board in the future, three from crypto companies and others from other companies.
COPA’s general manager Max Sills has reported to Blockworks that over the next 12 months, COPA will continue its mission to reach Big Tech, banks, and payment companies.