The Verge
Facebook is finally starting to roll out a “small pilot” of its Novi digital wallet today in the US and Guatemala, more than two years after it was first announced. The pilot program will let users send and receive money “instantly, securely, and with no fees” using the Paxos stablecoin, in partnership with Coinbase (which will be serving as the custody partner that holds the actual funds for the pilot).
According to Facebook’s David Marcus, the head of F2 (Facebook Financial), the pilot is meant to “test core feature functions, and operational capabilities in customer care and compliance,” in addition to trying to demonstrate a viable use of stablecoins for payments.
Most notably, though, is the fact that Novi is launching without its biggest feature: the Facebook-backed Diem cryptocurrency that was meant to be the cornerstone of the project. Diem was formerly known as Libra, before the name was changed in an effort to distance the now-independent group from Facebook, which initially started it. But Diem is still facing regulatory approval and has yet to launch its cryptocurrency in any country.
