Early marketing from Libra

Source: Libra

Libra was then renamed Diem and, in 2021, it was decided to migrate the busines from Switzerland to the US. Instead of being pegged/backed by a basket of fiat currencies, Diem was to be backed by the US$. Then along come NFTs, with Facebook proceeding to announce its Novi digital wallet. David Marcus, head of Facebook's Novi division, told Bloomberg: “We're definitely looking at a number of ways to get involved in the space because we think we're in a really good position to do so. When you have a good crypto wallet, like Novi will be, you also have to think about how to help consumers support NFTs.” The next chapter in this digital journey is that Facebook has changed the name of its holding company to Meta as it increasingly focuses its attention on the new digital worlds of avatars, Augmented reality and Virtual reality. However, in reference to Facebook’s original digital currency, the FT has reported Mark Zuckerberg as indicating “that cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens - digital tokens that represent artworks or other collectibles - would be part of the metaverse vision.”

For now, Facebook is to carry out a pilot test and launch its Novi digital wallet in America and Guatemala (where 56% of the citizens are unbanked) and will be offering a stablecoin from PAXO as a form of payment. However, surely it is not if, but when, will we see Facebook/Diem/Meta enabling its 2.9 billion monthly users to buy and sell NFTs and other digital assets in the on-line digital Metaverse, using their own digital currency?

Source: Teamblockchain

This announcement is significant as it will enable easy access for those who wish to use cryptocurrencies, so removing an often-cited challenge that cryptocurrencies faced in the past - “How do I spend my cryptos?” Furthermore, Visa has reported that its customers had spent over $1billion using cryptocurrencies in the first half of 2021. So, clearly there is a demand for people to use cryptocurrencies for everyday transactions, and presumably this is the reason why Mastercard is looking to offer the ability for the banks and merchants using Mastercard to be able to transact with cryptos. Mastercard is also helping to build the infrastructure required by Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) if they are to be fully embraced by retail users around the world. Mastercard's CEO, Michael Miebach, has been noted to report during the latest earnings update to shareholders that: “We are saying at this point in time, the most likely chance for this kind of technology to work for payments is if it's issued through a government in the form of a CBDC. We said that on a couple of calls before, and we said that we will make our network ready to do that as and when a government is ready to put out a CBDC that will exist alongside the dollar or the euro as a settlement currency in our network."

Given that Visa is an official partner for the Beijing Winter Olympics in February 2022, has Mastercard therefore been motivated to be ready to accept China’s new CBDC and so be the debit/credit card of choice for Chinese visitors, whereby undermining Visa’s sponsorship?