Less than a year after a pilot for Facebook’s Novi digital app was launched, the e-wallet has been scrapped in a change of direction away from cryptocurrency as the market falls.
Meta, who hoped Novi would become interoperable with other digital wallets, has now enacted their contingency plan of announcing that all accounts will be suspended on 1 September 2022, issuing warnings to customers to withdraw their funds “as soon as possible”.
In October, Facebook looked to resolve a series of antitrust issues concerning the Diem stablecoin project by gaining support from partnerships with Paxos and Coinbase to utilise the USDP (Pax Dollar) cryptocurrency. Facebook stated at the time that the pilot would enable consumers in Guatemala and the U.S. to use the Novi app more efficiently to make transfers overseas “instantly, securely and fee-free” via a mobile payment app.
Meta now seems to have abandoned the cryptocurrency market while companies make redundancies to survive, though there is still an indication that they will use the technology from the financial app in future projects.
From 21 July 2022, all customer accounts will be defunct but consumers can still request a copy of their data records while this service remains available for now.
In a statement, a spokesman for Meta stated: “We are already leveraging the years spent on building capabilities for Meta overall on blockchain and introducing new products, such as digital collectibles. You can expect to see more from us in the Web 3.0 space because we are very optimistic about the value these technologies can bring to people and businesses in the metaverse.”
The spiralling of crypto trends can be attributed to Meta’s changed strategy.
