Social media giant, Facebook’s interest in the crypto industry created an uproar across the globe. This project had to undergo immense scrutiny from regulators across the globe, which further delayed its launch. The repercussions of these harsh regulatory decisions were so bad that the platform even went on to change its crypto venture’s name from Libra to Diem.
With Diem, Facebook hoped to give its crypto venture a new start. However, a prominent member part of the development of this project bid adieu to Facebook and joined Planet Labs.
Facebook’s Crypto Venture
While the Diem project went on a hiring spree and bagged several experienced members into their team, the project seems to have lost its co-creator to Planet Labs. In a series of tweets, Kevin Weil, Facebook’s Vice President of product announced his departure from the social media platform.
Revealing that he had been working with Facebook for more than five years, Weil pointed out that he had learned an array of things. While he dedicated about three years to the creation of Diem, the prominent digital wallet platform, Novi along with David Marcus and others will reportedly continue developing the project.
Facebook’s main motive with the rollout of the Diem project was to offer financial services to the underbanked and unbanked. However, the regulatory hurdles put forth by governments across the globe staggered this mission. Elaborating on the same, Weil tweeted,
Furthermore, Weil suggested that he was happy to have worked with the social media platform and was ready to pass on the baton to the others. He added,
“That’s what we set out to create with Diem, and I still deeply believe in that mission. The digital wallet we’re building at Novi, in combination with other interoperable Diem wallets being built by companies big and small, can change billions of lives for the better.”
While he had suggested in the past that the launch of Diem could take several years on even decades, the social media platform had announced that they intend to roll out the stablecoin this year.