Facebook is ready to release its digital wallet, David Marcus, co-creator and a board member of Diem, a cryptocurrency project initiated by Facebook, said in a memo on Wednesday.
According to Marcus, the digital currency wallet that will be integrated into Facebook apps, Novi, is ready to hit the market.
David Marcus said:
It’s regulated, and we’re confident in our operational ability to exceed the high standarts of compliance that will be demanded of us.
Marcus said that Novi will offer free person-to-person payments domestically, as well as internationally. He added that when the wallet has “a meaningfull client base”, it could offer “cheaper merchant payments to businesses” and still make a profit from the merchant services.
Marcus stated:
We can then branch out and offer a variety of other financial services in partnership with respected and well-regulated partners, and expand from there.
Facebook did not specify a launch date. It also did not give information on which coins the wallet would hold.
David Marcus, who is the head of F2 or Facebook Financial, made a strong case that digital payments could make the financial system “global, open, interoperable, near real-time, cheap” in a regulated way.
Marcus said:
We feel that it’s unreasonable to delay delivering the benefits of cheaper, interoperable, more accessible digital payments. We will continue to persevere and demonstrate we can be a trusted player in this industry — and one that’s bringing positive change by being in it.
The new Novi wallet is different than the Libra project, which Facebook tried to release a couple of years ago. Facebook was forced to take another direction with that project due to great regulatory scrutiny, which lead to the Novi wallet.
Marcus suggested that Facebook might be willing to only offer fiat currencies in Novi and to drop its crypto plans if this would enable them to build a more solid service and bring more value to people.
He said:
Let me be clear, if we only offered fiat money in Novi, it would bring people a lot of value.
He added:
So why not just do that and call it a day? Well, we might.
He also countered:
I strongly believe if there was ever a chance to create an open, interoperable protocol for money on the internet and truly change the game for people and businesses around the world, it is now.
