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Facebook Shutting Down Libra and Rebranding Coindesk As Diem
In December 2020, Facebook will shut down its coin project, dubbed the Libra, and rebrand it as the Diem, which stands for “diem, now.” Despite the project’s recent success, it hasn’t done much to reassure the public and regulators. While Facebook framed the change as an attempt to reassert its independence, it seems more likely that the company intended to scrub off the bad blood from Libra.
Novikuhn was Meta’s digital wallet for its libra stablecoin
The Facebook-backed firm recently announced that it will shut down Novi, its digital wallet for its libra stable coin, effective Sept. 1. The project, which had begun under the Libra moniker, was intended to be a money transfer pilot for crypto-based remittances in 2020. This may interest you : How Do I Find an Apartment on Facebook?. Instead, it ended up getting very little love during its short lifetime. Its investors pulled out, its partners bolted, and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg focused his attention on the metaverse.
After a major cryptocurrency downturn in June, Meta announced that it was closing its Libra chapter. The Libra project was headed by David Marcus, former PayPal president, who spearheaded the initiative for Meta. Since his departure in December, however, he’s announced plans to build Lightspark, a similar project that aims to join Stripe, Strike, and Cash App in building a faster, cheaper, and scalable payment system.
It will be shut down
The new name, Diem, is derived from the Latin word for day, a reference to the future of currency. In addition to this new name, Facebook rebranded its digital wallet Novi, the name used by users to store various digital forms of currency. See the article : How Do I Make a Video With Music For Facebook?. The company also hired a former Treasury Department undersecretary, and changed its headquarters from Switzerland to the United States.
Diem’s shutdown is unlikely to have a major impact on the crypto ecosystem, as Meta’s business has already shifted to the metaverse platform. It’s unclear whether this will be the last blow to the crypto ecosystem, although the closure of the project will undoubtedly make it harder for new projects to gain traction. But a new promoter could revitalize the Diem network.
Its tarnishing
The Libra Association, a Facebook-sponsored cryptocurrency, is trying to disassociate itself from Facebook by changing its name to Diem. Diem is Latin for “day” and symbolizes the new day. Meanwhile, Facebook has rebranded its wallet as Novi, a new name for the digital currency. See the article : How Do I Switch Back to Classic Facebook?. Diem has also hired a former U.S. Treasury undersecretary and relocated its headquarters from Switzerland to the United States. The U.S. Treasury Department declined to comment on the matter.
The project has lost a few of its key stakeholders. Among them are Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, eBay, and Vodafone. Since Diem’s launch in January 2019, the association has lost some of its key figures, including CEO Kevin Weil, who was previously the head of Facebook’s digital wallet project Novi. Also, Diem’s management team has been shaken by recent departures. Earlier this year, the company hired Stuart Levey, a former HSBC executive and HSBC’s chief legal officer.
Its failure to address regulatory concerns
Throughout the past two years, Facebook has faced a number of privacy and regulatory issues. Privacy advocates have complained that Facebook collects too much personal data and antitrust experts worry about its power. In 2006, Facebook faced user outrage over its News Feed, which showed what friends had bought and sold. That scandal prompted the Federal Trade Commission to step in and examine the company’s policies. Facebook has been running afoul of regulators and weathering user anger for years, yet the company has still raked in record profits and has more than two billion users.
Although Facebook has created an Oversight Board made up of civic leaders, this group is unable to address some of the company’s core problems. The Oversight Board only considers decisions to remove content and keep accounts, while ignoring the larger issues like algorithmic amplification of content and linguistic bias. The board also has yet to address the problem of growth at Facebook, which many see as the root cause of privacy concerns.
Its name change to Diem
The Facebook coin project is preparing to launch a single dollar-pegged stablecoin called Diem, but the company has been struggling to scale it. It has cited regulatory scrutiny and data privacy as reasons for not scaling. The project recently finalized its executive team, and some believe the name change was a way to wash away the vitriol towards Libra. But the question is: why would Facebook want to rename the project?
First, the diem coin may be a good way to familiarize the new generation with crypto technologies. And it may even set an expectation for monetary systems that use open protocols. This is because Diem was designed to mimic libra, which was backed by a constantly changing basket of fiat currencies. And, in a way, this move is the R.J. Reynolds of digital surveillance.
