Facebook Crypto Wallet Novi Coming Soon, But Is the Market Ready?

This article comes fromDecrypt, original author: Jeff Benson

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Summary:Facebook first announced its crypto project in June 2019.

Last year, the project switched from a global currency initiative to a U.S. stablecoin.

Novi Wallet is coming soon.

David Marcus, co-founder of Facebook’s crypto project Diem, has announced that Novi, a long-gestating cryptocurrency wallet, is ready for market launch.

This statement comes at the end of a long blog post by David Marcus

, rather than doing publicity like Facebook did. Facebook first announced in June 2019 that it would create a digital currency backed by a basket of fiat currencies and governed by some of the biggest names in finance and tech.

Novi Wallet (formerly known as Calibra) finds itself struggling to enter a very different cryptocurrency market than it did two years ago.

Facebook's crypto project was originally called Libra, a digital currency that could be sent through the Calibra wallet. The goal is not to imitate a stablecoin priced in the U.S. dollar, but to create an entirely new global currency. While the asset will initially be managed by Libra Association members, over time it plans to become decentralized like other crypto projects.However, most of the previous assumptions have been shattered.In April 2020, Libra changed direction, aiming to become a traditional stablecoin. It no longer wants to be a new Bitcoin, but rather a more regulated version of USDC or Tether. Calibra will be a stable currency wallet, although it will be integrated with the world's largest social network, but it is only a stable currency wallet.

A month later, Calibra changed its name to Novi. Last December, the Libra Association announced that Libra would be renamed Diem.

Along the way, the project has seen a wave of departures, including co-founder Kevin Weil. In October 2019, eBay, Mastercard, Stripe and Visa collectively withdrew from the association in a single day after Facebook faced tough inquiries from regulators. Still, major players, including venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, crypto exchange Coinbase, and ride-sharing apps Uber and Lyft, have opted to stay on.

When Facebook first introduced the Libra token in June 2019, and amidst the rumors of its progress over the past few years, Tether (USDT) was then the dominant stablecoin with a $3.5 billion market cap. It is still the largest stablecoin by market capitalization,

So there is still room for Novi and Diem to play a role. Marcus now has a game plan.

Related Reading:

Diem Association Plans Single-Currency Stablecoin Pilot in 2021

He wrote, "We are licensed or approved by Novi in ​​nearly every state in the US. We will not release anywhere that has not yet been so licensed. Diem Association has become an independent entity in dialogue with US and global regulators .It has addressed all legitimate concerns raised in the process of designing and creating a high-quality stablecoin that offers broad consumer protections and provides a highly compliant payments network to back it up — all in the U.S. Regulatory... As part of creating a new account, Novi requires full due diligence on customers, including identification by uploading a government-issued ID, so new customer registration takes some time. Regulations and standards, nor can we operate in specific jurisdictions, so we will start with a few countries... We are a challenger in the payment industry, and we will provide free person-to-person (person-to-person) payments. We believe that people will prefer services that are free and more convenient to services that are significantly more expensive and less consumer-focused.”

Maybe so, but if there’s one thing Marcus and Facebook have learned about cryptocurrency over the past two years, it’s that it’s not about trust. It's about trustlessness.