Meta (Facebook) Announces Shut Down of Digital Wallet ‘Novi’ Pilot

• Novi’s “small pilot” was made available to Meta users in the United States and Guatemala.
• Facebook Pay was renamed Meta Pay last month.

The pilot phase for Novi, Meta’s digital wallet and the only surviving element of its failed cryptocurrency project, has been canceled, per the report from Bloomberg. “As soon as possible” is Meta’s recommendation for Novi users, who are urged to remove their cash from the wallet before September 1, 2022, via Novi’s website.

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Starting July 21, users will no longer be able to add money to Novi and can no longer access their accounts in September. Meta claims it will “attempt to transfer” to a bank account or debit card if someone forgets to remove their remaining amount.

Novi’s “small pilot” was made available to Meta users in the United States and Guatemala in October. Deciding to employ the Paxos stablecoin (USDP) instead of the Meta-backed cryptocurrency Diem, Novi was compelled to work with Coinbase due to regulatory issues. Diem support was supposed to be added by the end of 2021, but Meta began to fall apart as the year progressed.

As soon as Meta’s Novi project was launched in October 2021, senators in the United States demanded that it be shut down because the corporation “cannot be trusted to manage cryptocurrency.” One month later, David Marcus resigned, the CEO of Meta’s cryptocurrency initiatives. Diem finished the work by selling its assets for around $200 million at the beginning of this year.

Facebook Pay was renamed Meta Pay earlier this month, but it will still be available for purchases made via online retailers, Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Purchases may be made without having to input credit card information each time. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Pay, has indicated that Meta Pay would do the same in Metaverse, speeding up sales of digital things, art, and tickets to virtual events.

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