Facebook’s cryptocurrency project may launch in 2021, according to the head of the company’s financial services department.
David Marcus said that regulators must give Facebook the “benefit of the doubt” in its goal to introduce the cryptocurrency it supports as well as its digital wallet.
According to Marcus, he hopes both Facebook's cryptocurrency project called Diem and the social networking company's wallet Novi will launch next year.
“I hope that we get to participate with … Novi and Diem and the big changes of 2021, pending regulatory approvals where we need to obtain them,” Marcus said at the Singapore FinTech Festival.
Facebook called on regulators to give Diem and Novi a chance.
“I don’t think what we are asking for is just immediate trust. I think … what we’re asking for is at least to have the benefit of the doubt,” Marcus said.
He explained that Facebook could have made the cryptocurrency in a “closed way” only making it accessible to WhatsApp and Messenger users.
“I think you’d be hard-pressed to find any company that has done this in recent history of actually building something, investing considerable amount of resources into it, and then saying ok, we are going to relinquish our power here and we are going to try to make it as open ecosystem as it can be and basically tie one or both hands in our backs when it comes to enabling competition on the very thing that we’ve created,” Marcus said.
“I think all of those things that we’ve done — which has created all kinds of complications in the execution of this vision — is I think a good reason to give us the benefit of the doubt in terms of our intentions and what we plan to do here.”
Facebook's revenue
Last month, Facebook reported a surge in its revenue but says its daily and monthly active users in the US and Canada declined.
According to Facebook, its revenue went up by 22% to $21.47 billion compared to last year while its net income surged by 29% to $7.85 billion year-over-year. These numbers were higher than analysts’ forecasts.
Despite the revenue growth, Facebook expressed concern over its declining daily and monthly active users in the US and Canada in the third quarter compared to the previous three months.
During the quarter ending in September, the social media firm recorded a 12% increase in monthly active users, reaching 2.74 billion. If its various apps, including Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp, were combined, the total number of users during the period is 3.21 billion, reflecting a 14% growth.
According to Facebook, these numbers “reflect increased engagement as people around the world sheltered in place and used our products to connect with the people and organizations they care about.”
However, the company pointed out that as stay at home orders begin to ease, it expects the number of active users to be flat or to slightly drop in the future. It already observed declines in the US and Canada during the quarter.
