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Facebook intends to launch a digital cryptocurrency pilot service later this year
People familiar with the matter said today that the “Diem Association” that is responsible for operating Facebook’s digital cryptocurrency project, intends to release a pilot service of a single stable currency pegged to the US dollar later this year.
The person familiar with the matter said that the initial pilot scale will be small and will mainly focus on transactions between individual consumers. The pilot date has not yet been determined, and the time may be changed.
In June 2019, Facebook released a digital cryptocurrency called “Libra”. Libra was originally planned to be officially launched in 2020 and is supposed to give digital transaction and payment services to billions of potential users.
But then, many central banks, finance ministers, legislators, and many privacy protection agencies around the world raised questions about Libra and listed multiple issues related to Libra, including money laundering, terrorist financing, and financial stability.
In April 2020, the Libra Association declared an adjustment to the Libra project. After the adjustment, it will support multiple versions of digital currencies, that is, a “stable currency” backed by a single currency.
In contrast, Facebook’s initial plan was to get Libra to get a mix of currency (US dollar, euro, Japanese yen, British pound, and Singapore dollar) and government debt.
In December 2020, Facebook will rename “Libra” to “Diem”. Along with this, the “Libra Association” responsible for launching and operating this digital cryptocurrency was also renamed “Diem Association”.
As reported, the name change is to emphasize the independence of the project, thereby obtaining regulatory approval.
Regarding Diem’s delay in launching, Michael Casey, a chief content officer of cryptocurrency platform CoinDesk, said in an interview: “It really disappeared from the radar in a rather amazing way.”
This is a shocking challenge to the international order because its impact is really very strong. Ran Goldi, CEO of Digital Asset Group (DAG), said: “Diem technology has undergone dramatic changes in the past year and a half.
From the naive blockchain technology to very mature, you can I saw it was trying to answer some of the questions raised by regulators.”
Blockchain analysis company Chain analysis CEO Michael Gronager believes: “Diem can be approved this year, otherwise it will miss the opportunity again.”
