Facebook, now Meta, has launched its anticipated digital currency wallet—Novi—in the US. In its latest blog post, David Marcus, Head of Meta’s Novi wallet, announced that the company had started the pilot of the wallet in several parts of the US as well as Guatemala.
Meta’s Novi wallet app can be downloaded on iPhones as well as Android. Users can register with a government-issued ID and the transfer of money via the wallets is free. The US cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, is providing custody services for the Novi wallet.
Furthermore, Meta has already indicated its eagerness to welcome Novi in the Meta group of apps and services network, similar to WhatsApp. The report affirms that noting that Novi focuses on the privacy of user data, encrypting the entire financial info, this proposed feature is perfectly cordial with the standards of app platform assuring a modern protected means to swap money with allies and mates rapidly.
Meta has launched its own digital currency wallet, however, the company has chosen to use the existing stablecoin—Paxos—after its own cryptocurrency Diem failed to get backing from regulators. Meta’s decision to use an existing stablecoin rather than Diem, which Novi was originally designed to hold, is an initiative to get the company’s initiated sand failed crypto venture off the field.
Although Meta’s digital wallet launch is a ground-clearing initiative into the digital currency wallet, it faced several backlashes from political groups. The project was called to be shut down by a group of Democratic senators. In their letter to Facebook (Meta) CEO Mark Zuckerberg, they wrote, “Facebook is once again pursuing digital currency plans on an aggressive timeline . . . even though these plans are incompatible with the actual financial regulatory landscape — not only for Diem specifically but also for stablecoins in general. Facebook cannot be trusted to manage a payment system or digital currency when its existing ability to manage risks and keep consumers safe has proven wholly insufficient.”
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