The tech giant announced Friday that the digital wallet payments pilot it launched last October will end on September 1st.
In a statement provided to CoinDesk, the tech giant that is now known as Meta suggested it has plans to reuse the digital wallet technology for future products. It is not clear what Meta wants to do with the technology.
The metaverse is a major opportunity for digital commerce. It could take decades for the sought for market to be developed.
In recent months, the company has been testing support for digital collectables, so Meta having its own digital wallet infrastructure could support a wider push into non-fungible token trading if it decides there's enough money to be made on that front.
The pilot allowed users to make fee-free, instant personal payments via the Novi app, using stable coins as the transfer medium, with Meta's marketing claiming its tech made sending money "as easy as sending" The pilot was limited to two countries.
A subset of US users of the Facebook-owned messaging platform were able to use a limited integration withWhatsApp.
In the face of regulatory push back and withering support, the wallet project was generally hampered.
After years of governance scandals, it's fair to say that Facebook's ability to move fast and break things was hampered by its reputation.
At launch, the original ambition of the project was scaled back, rather than the coin associated with the project itself.
The digital wallet was written on the wall in November with the departure of David Marcus, who had headed up the Meta team.
In January, the consortium Meta had set up to back and steer the crypto project announced it was winding down. The game is done.
There is no context or color to the note on the website about the end of the payment pilot.
“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.”
There is no mention of the broader market free fall that has led to dramatic sell offs in recent months. There was no mention of the international attention on the regulation of cryptocurrencies. Market conditions are cooling Meta.
The person contacted Meta.
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