Co-creator of Meta’s Diem Praises Bitcoin
Former head of Meta’s cryptocurrency and fintech unit and co-founder of Diem, David Marcus, took to Twitter on Tuesday to vocalize his support for Bitcoin, predicting that it will be the “one asset and L1 still around in 20+ years.” Marcus spent years working on Meta’s Diem, a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar, before stepping down from his position late last year.
Diem - originally known as Libra - was officially introduced in 2019 as Meta’s attempt at creating a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar. Presumably, the token would have been used for transactions on a number of Meta’s apps, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. They attempted to begin rolling out services in the U.S. last year, with WhatsApp messenger testing payments using Meta’s Novi wallet in December.
When it was first introduced, the project included a foundation of global payment companies like Mastercard, PayPal, Visa, eBay, and Stripe. However, just four months into the project, many of these companies began exiting the association. The project also received harsh public criticism and massive regulatory pushback, with financial authorities expressing worries over tech giants gaining too much financial power.
Earlier this week, Meta officially announced the end of the Diem project. On Monday, Diem CEO Stuart Levey confirmed that Meta is selling the intellectual property and other assets related to the Diem project to Silvergate Capital Corporation. Marcus’s Twitter thread, in which he described Bitcoin as “truly leaderless, censorship-resistant, and has much greater network effects,” came shortly after the announcement. Marcus added that “in essence, [Bitcoin] is unique and cannot ever be replicated. Its creation truly was the Big Bang event of crypto.”
Marcus wasn’t the only bitcoin bull vocal on Twitter after Diem announced its sale to Silvergate. The Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance (COPA) also announced that Meta had joined its board. This may be a sign that Meta will not enforce its cryptocurrency patents against other developers - Jack Dorsey gave his approval on Twitter: