Jack Dorsey criticises Meta for ‘wasted efforts’ on Diem

Facebook’s plan (now Meta) to launch its own cryptocurrency was originally misguided, and the company would have been better off focusing on Bitcoin. This view was voiced by Jack Dorsey in интервью with MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor.

The former Twitter chief discussed with his interlocutor how the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation could help corporations.

“A native currency for the internet opens so many doors, especially for technology companies, but more importantly for ordinary people, activists, those who have questions about the world, curiosity and the realisation that monetary systems simply do not work for them,” said Dorsey.

According to him, Facebook spent ‘time and effort’ on its own project, but it would have been better to direct those efforts toward ‘making Bitcoin more accessible to a larger number of people around the world.’

Plans for Facebook to release its own cryptocurrency became known in 2018. In June 2019, the basket-backed stablecoin Libra was officially announced with the publication of a white paper.

To run the payments network, Facebook created a nonprofit organisation, the Libra Association. Among its members were Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Uber, Spotify, Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase and other well-known companies.

The Facebook cryptocurrency project drew regulators’ concerns, and in July 2019 hearings on it were held before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee.

In October it emerged that payment firms Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Stripe were not rushing to sign formal participation documents in the Libra Association because of regulatory concerns. They subsequently withdrew from the project.

In May 2020, Facebook rebranded the Libra wallet from Calibra to Novi and created a new operator for it. In December the stablecoin project renamed its name to Diem.

In January 2022, the Diem Association announced the sale of it to Silvergate Capital Corporation, reportedly for $200 million. One of the main reasons for abandoning the project was regulators’ stance, confirmed Stuart Levey, CEO of Diem Networks US.

Earlier, Jack Dorsey had repeatedly described Bitcoin as the internet’s potential native currency. In 2019, while leading Twitter, he categorically rejected the possibility of his company participating in Facebook’s cryptocurrency initiative.