“The controversial Libra cryptocurrency project gained a new member Friday with Shopify Inc.’s announcement it will join the Libra Association , the governing body for the fledgling venture. Shopify’s decision comes in the face of a string of eight high-profile defections from the association since October, including decisions by Mastercard Inc., PayPal Holdings Inc., Stripe Inc., and Visa Inc. to drop their memberships. But Shopify, a commerce platform based in Ottawa, Canada, made it plain it sees Libra offering advantages for digital payments and merchandising. “[W]e spend a lot of our time thinking about how to make commerce better in parts of the world where money and banking could be far better. That’s why we decided to become a member of the Libra Association … As a member … we will work collectively to build a payment network that makes money easier to access and supports merchants and consumers everywhere,” the company said in a blog post explaining its decision.”