A pilot implementation in the US lets some WhatsApp users send and receive money using the Novi digital wallet. Exactly how this relates to Diem, if at all, is unclear. With trust in Meta at an all-time low and with the recent departure of David Marcus, the lack of transparency regarding how this all operates makes even small questions loom large:
“Some users of the Whatsapp messaging app in the US are now able to send and receive money using the Novi wallet, an expansion of a pilot program for the cryptocurrency payments service developed by Meta, the tech behemoth formerly known as Facebook.
A “limited number” of people on WhatsApp have access to moving money digitally with Novi, said Stephane Kasriel, Novi’s CEO, in a posting on Twitter late Wednesday. WhatsApp is a unit of Meta. Kasriel touted sending money to family and friends with Novi “as easy as sending a message.” A notice about the expanded US testing was also put on Novi’s website.
A standalone app like WhatsApp, Novi is designed to transfer money internationally and instantly with no fees to send or receive money. Payments are made through Pax Dollars, or USDP, a stablecoin created in 2018 whose value is pegged to the US dollar and whose reserves are fully backed by cash and cash equivalents.”
Overview by Tim Sloane, VP, Payments Innovation at Mercator Advisory Group