Meta Is Finally Closing Its Cryptocurrency Project Novi (cnet.com) 27
"What little is left of Meta's once-ambitious cryptocurrency project is limping to an end," reports CNET:
A pilot program for Novi, the social media giant's money-transfer service that uses a cryptocurrency wallet of the same name, will cease operating on Sept. 1, according to a notice on its website. The Novi pilot served Guatemala and parts of the US when it launched in October 2021. "The Novi pilot is ending soon," according to the notice, which was reported earlier by Bloomberg News. "We've made it easy for you to get your remaining balance and download your Novi information." Another page on the site encourages users to withdraw balances "as soon as possible."
The planned phaseout of Novi is hardly surprising. Earlier this year, Meta and its partners pulled the plug on Diem, a related cryptocurrency project that was launched under the moniker Libra in 2019, when Meta was still called Facebook... The Libra-Diem-Novi project got little love in its brief history. Partners bolted, details shifted, and legislators criticized the plans. CEO Mark Zuckerberg eventually shifted his interest to the metaverse and an end to the crypto plans seemed inevitable.
Protocol points out that Novi "was a far cry from what Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and then-Meta executive David Marcus originally envisioned." They unveiled plans for a stablecoin, initially called Libra, in 2019, with plans to launch it in 2020, along with a crypto wallet called Calibra. It soon faced resistance from regulators around the globe. The token was renamed Diem and the wallet Novi, but the new name didn't change official skepticism... Marcus left Meta last year, and Meta sold assets related to the project to its banking partner, Silvergate. Novi was supposed to become the new brand for all of Meta's financial products, including Facebook Pay. But after Marcus' departure, Meta started downplaying the Novi name. Meta's financial operations became Meta Financial Technologies in March, and Facebook Pay became Meta Pay in June.
Meta hasn't completely abandoned its blockchain ambitions, signaling that support for cryptocurrency payments will eventually be built into Meta Pay.
Protocol points out that Novi "was a far cry from what Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and then-Meta executive David Marcus originally envisioned." They unveiled plans for a stablecoin, initially called Libra, in 2019, with plans to launch it in 2020, along with a crypto wallet called Calibra. It soon faced resistance from regulators around the globe. The token was renamed Diem and the wallet Novi, but the new name didn't change official skepticism... Marcus left Meta last year, and Meta sold assets related to the project to its banking partner, Silvergate. Novi was supposed to become the new brand for all of Meta's financial products, including Facebook Pay. But after Marcus' departure, Meta started downplaying the Novi name. Meta's financial operations became Meta Financial Technologies in March, and Facebook Pay became Meta Pay in June.
Meta hasn't completely abandoned its blockchain ambitions, signaling that support for cryptocurrency payments will eventually be built into Meta Pay.
Nobody wanted it! Cuck the Zuck. (Score:2)
Re:Nobody wanted it! Cuck the Zuck. (Score:4, Funny)
I'm a simple man. An avalanche would already satisfy me, as long as he's below it.
Re: (Score:2)
Zuckerberg is so toxic that he had to rename the company that made him a billionaire. The guy is a crook, and I wish him an avalanche of failures.
It's already on its way, facebook is fried! He got lucky once and it's the end of the story now. He envisions a bunch of stuff that anyone with half a brain could tell will never work and he shows how stupid he is and how lucky he was IMHO.
I know it's easy to bitch while sitting in the bleachers so I usually don't do it but for him, it is quite obvious to anybody.
He should cash-in and retire while his assets are still worth something because the value can only go down from now on.
You had me at... (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Some headlines should end while they're ahead.
That's what they get for not calling them Facebuck (Score:1)
Gift cards (Score:3)
Novi was supposed to become the new brand for all of Meta's financial products
Because no one wants to pay for gift cards in order to buy stuff when they can already buy stuff anywhere they want.
It would be a terrible state of affairs when a social media company, with a well known track record of destabilization of countries, run by a possible psychopath, is in control of any "financial products".
Re: (Score:2)
I don't get gift cards. I mean, ponder the deal for a moment:
"Here's cash. This is legal tender anywhere, at any store. Could you so rig id that I trade this for something that's only going to buy stuff here, and only for a limited time?"
Who does that?
Re: (Score:2)
People who think giving plain money isn't "right". So they want to give something specific, but not spend time trying to find out which specific thing the person getting the gift wants.
Re: (Score:2)
I never quite understood why giving cash as a gift is wrong. My great-grandmother put it the right way (I really had a connection with that woman, she was too "no bullshit, say it like it is"): I have no clue what you like, son, so here's 100 bucks, you know what you need better than me!"
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
People who think giving plain money isn't "right". So they want to give something specific, but not spend time trying to find out which specific thing the person getting the gift wants.
Nah, some people are simply afraid of what you might use the money for so they try to limit the possibilities to something they would agree on. Same thing as food stamps that sometimes end up being traded at 50% of the value or less so people can buy booze instead for example.
Re: (Score:2)
Most people of on food stamps need the fucking food and would not trade it for booze. All the stress of jumping through all those hoops just to eat is completely unnecessary.
Re: (Score:2)
I love movie gift cards. When I get one I am at the movies the very same weekend.
Re: (Score:2)
When Facebook gives up on a scam (Score:3, Interesting)
you know it's about to implode.
Also, it bears repeating: It's FACEBOOK, not meta. Meta is the name Facebook has adopted for its tax-dodging holding company, and to fool people into thinking they're something other than privacy-invading data brokers.
Re: (Score:2)
Quod licet novi, non licet bovi (Score:2)
Just saying.
Re: (Score:2)
Those who want something new, don't get the cow?
Re: Quod licet novi, non licet bovi (Score:1)
Re: Quod licet novi, non licet bovi (Score:2)
Who has new lice? Don't get lice on the cow?
Re: (Score:2)
No More Suckbucks :( (Score:2)
Sadness.
(No. Not really.)
Whoa! (Score:1)
Now, if only we could kill the social media fad and put tech back on a course to serve humanity, rather than leach off of it.