Jack Dorsey, Square CEO and Twitter founder, has said in an interview with MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor that Facebook's (currently Meta) plan to issue its own stablecoin was wrong from the start, and the company should have focused on Bitcoin instead.
The former Twitter CEO has discussed with his interlocutor how the largest crypto by market capitalization could help corporations. He has said:
"By having a native currency, the Internet opens a lot of doors, especially for tech companies, but more importantly, for ordinary people, activists, those who have questions about the world, curiosity and a recognition that monetary systems just don't work for them."
According to Dorsey, Facebook wasted "energy and time" on its own project, but would be better off directing them to "making Bitcoin more accessible for more people around the world."
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Facebook's plans to launch its own crypto were unveiled back in 2018. In June 2019, Libra, the blueprint for a stablecoin backed by a basket of various cryptocurrencies, was officially announced with the publication of a white paper.
To manage the payment network, Facebook created the non-profit organization Libra Association. Its members included Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Uber, Spotify, Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase as well as other well-known companies. However, the project aroused the misgivings of regulators and, in July 2019, hearings on it were held in the US Senate Banking Committee.
In October, it became known payment companies Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Stripe were in no hurry to sign official documents on participation in the Libra Association and eventually abandoned the project.
In May 2020, Facebook changed the name of the Libra wallet from Calibra to Novi and created a new operator for it. In December, the stablecoin project changed its name to Diem.
In January 2022, the Diem Partnership announced its sale to Silvergate Capital Corporation, for reportedly $200 million.