It was big news when Facebook/Meta first ventured into cryptocurrency, a decision that didn’t quite go according to plan. Three years later, the Libra project—as it was called—has now come to a grounding halt. On Friday, the tech behemoth announced that Novi, its digital wallet payment pilot, will end on September 1.
Meta, Facebook’s newly adopted name, supplied a statement to CoinDesk stating its plans to remodel Novi to serve future products. Especially products related to Meta’s paradigm of “metaverse” growth.
Though Facebook/Meta hasn’t publicized how it plans to go about “repurposing”, executives are hyping the metaverse’s relevance to digital commerce. They’ve also hinted that the time-frame needed to garner the required market is lengthy and might take up to decades.
Since Facebook/Meta has its digital wallet system, the tech giant has considered NFTs trading but must first confirm if they would make enough money (seeing that NFT trading—and crypto trading at large—has drastically reduced compared to 2021).
Commendably, Novi’s pilot was quite basic. It allowed testers to make quick, charge-free transactions using a stablecoin (DIEM) on the Novi app. Meta’s marketers boasted that users could send money “as easy as sending a message” because of its top-notch tech.
Why Novi Failed
While considering various reasons for Novi’s inability to ‘make it and hit peak’, the most obvious will be Facebook’s record of governance scandals (something African Tech startups must look to avoid, if they want to survive); especially with crypto users becoming more concerned about money laundering and currency volatility.
Hence, Novi was scaled back at launch.
Another recent ominous warning was the departure of David Marcus, Meta’s top crypto executive who leads the Novi project. It became game over when the Libra/Diem Association, Meta’s consortium to steer the crypto project, declared it is winding up and sold Diem stablecoin assets.
In Conclusion
Novi’s note on their website was clear as crystal—it simply read:
“Novi will no longer be available for use after September 1. Before Novi goes away, we’ve made it easy for you to get your remaining balance and download your Novi information.”
Since the message said nothing about the recent sell-offs that left users worried about the stability of stablecoins, users remain in the dark on Meta’s decision to ‘end it‘.
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