Meta Platforms, formerly Facebook, has been working on its cryptocurrency wallet, Novi, for several months. And now, it has recently rolled out plans to allow users to send and receive money through it¡¯s massively popular messaging app, WhatsApp.
Currently in its trial stage, this pilot program is open to a limited number of people in the United States at present.
The head of Novi also assured that using Novi will not change the privacy of WhatsApp personal messages and calls.
This small pilot project follows the failure to launch Libra as a global digital currency, which was announced in 2019 but failed to take off and succeed.
But despite the failure, the long-term aim for Meta is the same, which in its own words, is-Solving the challenges faced by 1.7 billion adults globally who are unable to engage with global financial systems.
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So, with this new project getting the green signals to go ahead and set on trial, it's a new ray of hope in the world of global financial inclusion of cryptocurrency.
The users enrolled in this trial would be allowed to send and receive the US Pax Dollar (USDP) token, which is a cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to the US dollar and falls under the regulation of the New York State Department of financial services.
As per Meta, it has precisely valued this so-called ¡®stablecoin¡¯ because it does not tend to exhibit the kind of volatility like recently saw Bitcoin lose over a fifth of its value just a week ago.
A statement by Novi also explained that USDP was chosen as it has been ¡®operating successfully¡¯ for over three years and possesses important regulatory and consumer protection attributes, with USDP reserves being fully backed by the US dollar and are held 100% in cash and cash equivalents. Hence, people can easily withdraw their money in their local currency whenever they choose to.
So, as of now, for this in-app cryptocurrency trial by Whatsapp, other tokens like Ether, Bitcoin, and even Meta's own Diem cryptocurrency, which had replaced its plans for Libra, aren't made available yet.??But Meta has said that as soon as Diem receives the regulatory approvals, then the Novi app would begin using it, instead of USDP.?Rest remains to be seen as the trial goes ahead.
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