Where has Facebook’s Cryptocurrency Gone?

Facebook announced Libra, its cryptocurrency, in June 2019. More than two years are about to pass, and it still hasn’t surfaced.

https://twitter.com/decryptmedia/status/1449913179795070979?s=20

Whilst Bitcoin was featured for hitting $2.6 trillion in October 2021, Facebook is losing potential buyers of its Libra currency. Last weekend, Facebook quietly lost two more employees.

Riyaz Faizullabhoy and Nassim Eddequiouaq left crypto supervision firm Anchorage in 2019 and joined Facebook’s crypto wallet. They left Libra to join the crypto space with an investment capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). Andreessen Horowitz was actually a founding member of the Diem (Libra) — often known for being Facebook’s co-creator — who left Facebook when Libra needed support in the digital world.

Four months after Libra’s announcement, the Libra Association lost eight other founding associates too, including eBay, Stripe, heavyweights PayPal, and MasterCard.

After this loss, Libra was renamed ‘Diem’ and then Facebook named it ‘Calibra’ in order to integrate Facebook’s digital currency ‘Libra’ into Facebook’s wallet app. Then it holds “Novi” by name.

Now, in the fourth quarter of 2021, it is worth examining whether traders and influencers actually want Facebook’s helping hand in the cryptocurrency world.

Facebook dislikes when consumers call Facebook Libra ‘Facebook’s cryptocurrency’, ‘Zuck Bucks’ or ‘Facebookcoin’. This is because Facebook does not own Diem (Libra’s new name) because it’s not actually Mark’s (Zuckerberg) thing. Member companies have backed it from Consortium. Consortium is based in Switzerland, and this way, the coin will gradually decentralize.

However, it was Facebook itself who announced the Consortium project, and of course, the Facebook administrators will face its future consequences. No matter whether it thrives in the news or expires, Facebook’s name is still on it.

The Consortium project is a national specialist infrastructure and membership organization that strengthens and supports LGBT+ groups, organizations and projects so that they can deliver direct services and campaign for individual rights.

Ironically, Facebook supported Fedcoin (a central bank digital currency), when Mark Zuckerberg tried to use China’s crypto yuan as carrots in October 2019 for Libra’s defence. Zuckerberg defended the merits of the project at a contentious Capitol Hill hearing that ranged across a broad range of issues facing the world’s largest social network.

Much of the criticism surrounding Facebook focuses on whether the company is trustworthy, given problems with privacy, hate speech, disinformation, and other threats that have grown along with the scope of its products and user base.

If the U.S. has conflicts with Libra, Facebook may suffer China’s breakdown on digital payment reform.

There is a likeness here to the response from blockchain O.G.s to the BTC futures ETF approval. Just as traders cheered the report for the BTC price pump, ETF (exchange-traded funds) are aiming to gain exposure in the BTC, and in the same way, Facebook’s currency wants some exposure in Libra’s future.

Frank Chaparro at The Block stated in August 2021 that Novi is now in talks with both Circle and Paxos about collaborating with them rather than Diem.

https://twitter.com/BarrySilbert/status/1449563600650182658?s=20

Facebook also has an immense built-in advantage that no one can refuse: 2.9 billion active users.

Whatever Facebook puts out there, most users will try it.

In 2020, 30 million BTC addresses were found and all of them had funds. If only 2% of Facebook users acquire Diem (Libra) in Novi wallets, around 58 million Diem active users are not going anywhere.

Finally, Facebook is about to enter into a crowded marketplace of similar products. Facebook administrator David Marcus announced that the Facebook currency is ready to come to market. Soon, they will regulate Facebook Libra for transactions.