On Friday (30 December 2022), David Marcus, Facebook\u2019s former Head of Messenger and Head of Crypto (more specifically, the Head of the Novi digital wallet), shared his predictions for 2023.<\/p>\n
Between May 2018 and December 2021, Marcus was working at Meta Platforms, Inc. (previously known as Facebook, Inc.) on the Novi digital wallet project.<\/p>\n
According to a\u00a0report\u00a0by CoinDesk published on 1 July 2022, on this day, Meta announced on the Novi website that \u201cthe Novi pilot is ending soon\u201d and that Novi would \u201cno longer be available for use after September 1.\u201d Per the report, \u201cbeginning July 21, users will lose the ability to add money to their accounts and \u201cNovi\u2019s WhatsApp account and the Novi app will also become unavailable.\u201d<\/p>\n
The CoinDesk report went on to say:<\/p>\n
\u201cNovi, originally known as Calibra, had been Meta\u2019s wallet for its libra stablecoin (later renamed diem) revealed in June 2019. Its role shifted as\u00a0regulatory pressures\u00a0forced the stablecoin project to change course. Novi became a money-transfer pilot for crypto-based remittances in 2020 \u2013 but it never got beyond the U.S. and Guatemala.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n On 30 November 2021, Marcus took to Twitter to announce that he was leaving Meta at the end of 2021:<\/p>\n Then, on 12 May 2022, Marcus announced on Twitter that he had created a new company called\u00a0Lightspark\u00a0in order to \u201cexplore, build and extend the capabilities and utility of Bitcoin\u201d, and that they were going to start by focusing on the Lightning Network.<\/p>\n Well, yesterday (30 December 2022), Marcus published a blog post in which he said:<\/p>\n