Facebook To Introduce Crypto Wallet, Novi

FACEBOOKon Friday announced that it would soon introduce its cryptocurrency wallet named Novi Digital Wallet, saying the wallet would be tied to the Diem Blockchain system.

Facebook’s financial services chief and a board member of Diem, David Marcus, stated that the present cash-run economy has left 1.7 billion people “unbanked or underbanked” and still the process remained extremely slow.

“Change is long overdue. It will happen in one way or another. Novi is ready to come to market. We feel that it’s unreasonable to delay delivering the benefits of cheaper, interoperable, more accessible digital payments,” he said.

The Diem programme was originally planned to launch in the first half of 2021 but it was postponed due to the constant government scrutiny of Facebook.

Diem which was originally named Libra is a stable coin that turns the money added to the digital wallet into a digital currency and makes it easy to send worldwide.

As a payment platform, Facebook has already made more than $100bn worth of transactions in 55 currencies.

In an effort to debunk the common cryptocurrency myths, Marcus wrote, “It’s a misconception that digital assets are by definition anonymous. Built and configured the right way, stable coins and wallets put customer due diligence at the center of their approach to compliance.”

According to his post, the company is trying to comply with the regulators.

“It has addressed every legitimate concern that was raised on its journey to design and build a high-quality stable coin. This is with extensive consumer protections, and a highly compliant payments network to support it all within the US regulatory perimeter,” he said.