On the first of September Meta will close its digital wallet, Novi. This is the coup de grace to Diem, the project of its digital currency. All Zuckerberg's next moves in the industry
Meta will close Novi, the company's digital payments wallet launched just a year ago. He first reported this from Bloomberg. On Novi's website, Meta states that the wallet will be closed on September 1, 2022. Therefore, it asks users to withdraw their funds "as soon as possible". This is the last act of the Facebook group project (now Meta) for the launch of its own cryptocurrency. Since the announcement of the Libra digital currency project in 2019, Facebook's efforts in the crypto space have remained as controversial as they are ephemeral. Novi's closing decision comes at a critical time for cryptocurrencies, as markets intensify and key companies' liquidity problems such as Celsius Network and Three Arrows Capital. However, this is not an epilogue for Novi. Meta's senior executives have spoken of the metaverse as a great opportunity for digital commerce. But they also warned of the long time it will take to develop the market, suggesting that it could take decades. All the details. THE CLOSURE OF NOVI BY META On September 1st, the curtain will fall on the Novi digital wallet. Both the independent App Novi and the integration for WhatsApp will have limitations as early as July 21, when subscribers will no longer be able to add money to their accounts. THE PROJECT As The Verge recalls, Meta launched the Novi "little pilot" to users in the U.S. and Guatemala last October. Originally created to support fast and free transactions using Meta-backed cryptocurrency, Diem, the company had to correct the shot as it went. The tightening of regulators forced the company to partner with Coinbase to use the Paxos stablecoin (USDP) instead. While Meta made it clear that it still planned to add support for Diem at a later date, at the end of 2021 and in 2022 the process stalled. NOTHING TO DO WITH DIEM (AND BEFORE THAT LIBRA) Before Facebook's parent company was known as Meta, Diem was also known by another name: Libra. The cryptocurrency project faced scrutiny over its ties to Facebook, so much so that the independent group behind Libra renamed the project to Diem in an attempt to distance itself from the social network. WITH A LOOK AT THE METAVERSE However, the end of Diem does not mean that Meta is abandoning the idea of developing its own digital assets and related portfolio. Meta spokesperson Lauren Dickson said in a statement emailed to The Verge that Meta will use the technology developed alongside the project "on new products, such as digital collectibles," while looking at "building the metaverse. Expect to see more from us in new contexts, convinced that these technologies can bring great advantages to people and companies in the metaverse ." In addition, Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently also hinted at creating a digital wallet that could help you manage and store "digital clothing, art, video, music, experiences, virtual events, and more." The portfolio would be interoperable between different metaverse experiences, reflecting the objectives of the Metaverse Standards Forum. The Metaverse Standards Forum is an organization aimed at defining common development and communication protocols that make the nascent digital worlds of companies compatible with each other. Participants in the Metaverse Standards Forum include many of the largest companies working in this space, from chip makers to gaming companies, as well as established standard-setting bodies such as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Among these stand out the American big techs such as Microsoft, and Sony and Meta precisely.