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Facebook: Novi Digital Wallet Is ‘Ready to Come to Market’

Coindesk

Facebook said Wednesday that the global payments system is seriously flawed and that the social media giant can fix it.

  • “Change is long overdue,” Facebook’s David Marcus wrote in a blog post.
  • Marcus, the former PayPal chief hired in 2018 to lead Facebook’s blockchain efforts, said Novi, the digital wallet subsidiary he oversees, is “ready to come to market.”
  • “We feel that it’s unreasonable to delay delivering the benefits of cheaper, interoperable, more accessible digital payments,” he wrote.
  • The blog post follows reports of the increased obstacles that Facebook’s stablecoin project faces. After being introduced in June 2019, Libra ran into resistance from global regulators. The project, which was rebranded as Diem in December, has yet to launch.
  • Only offering fiat currency within Novi would still provide value, Marcus wrote, though he added: “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.”
  • Marcus noted that Facebook has secured licenses and approvals for Novi in nearly every state in the U.S., and said, “We will not launch anywhere we have not yet received such clearances.”

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Crypto. The buzzword you hear everywhere from the news to friends hyping it up. Has the craze gone mainstream and reached businesses?

Big names like Microsoft, AMC, Starbucks, and AT&T are in, but what do small businesses think? The Strawhecker Group (TSG) used new survey data from nearly 600 small businesses in the U.S. to illustrate their knowledge, attitudes, and acceptance of cryptocurrency.

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Payments professionals across the ecosystem will find this infographic to be a great resource as the market continues to evolve. Are you working with merchants on a crypto strategy?