Facebook’s history with cryptocurrencies seems to be coming to fruition. Since they announced Libra (now Diem) together with a consortium of tech companies, they have been developing their wallet as well. Novi, the wallet, they say is now ready, but they probably won’t launch it until Diem comes to market as well.
David Marcus, head of Facebook Financial at the company, recently gave an interview to Bloomberg. In it, he explains that Facebook’s Novi digital wallet is ready to be launched. However, they don’t want to launch it until Diem (the cryptocurrency they want to use) is also ready.
Diem has gone through a lot of trouble to go public. It is expected to do so sometime this year or early next year. It will do so as a stablecoin, so its value will be the same as the fiat currency of each country where it operates.
Diem now operates independently of Facebook, although the social network has remained one of the main partners since the beginning. Facebook, therefore, does not influence when and how Diem will be launched. They do say that “as a last resort” they are considering launching their Novi wallet without Diem.
NFTs are also on Facebook
The buzzword in the crypto world is “NFTs“. Non-transferable digital assets have burst into 2021 stronger than ever, and Facebook wants to ride the wave as well. According to David Marcus, at Facebook, they are looking at “ways to get involved in the space because we think we’re in a really good position to do so.”
NFT digital assets ultimately are crypto addresses just as cryptocurrencies are, so where it makes the most sense to store them is in a crypto wallet. “When you have a good crypto wallet, like Novi, you also have to think about how to help consumers who use NFTs,” explained David Marcus. At the moment however they have not given any further details as a result.
