Facebook announces ‘Novi’ digital currency wallet

Facebook is starting to roll out a small pilot of the Novi digital wallet app in Guatemala and the United States.

Novi is a digital wallet that aims to help people send and receive money abroad instantly. Plus, it has no fees to send or receive money internationally and no markups on exchange rates.

Novi uses digital currencies that make sending money as easy as sending a message, starting with USDP (Pax Dollar).

During its pilot, Novi will enable people to send and receive money using USDP through partnerships with Paxos and Coinbase. The app is available on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. However, the company also intends to migrate Novi to the Diem payment network once it receives regulatory approval.

“The goal for Novi has been and always will be to be interoperable with other digital wallets and we believe a purpose-built blockchain for payments, like Diem, is critical to deliver solutions to the problems that people experience with the current payment system. Imagine if you couldn’t send an email from a Gmail address to a Yahoo address, or if you could only text people with the same mobile provider as you,” said David Marcus, Head of Novi.

Moreover, the company also noted that they have chosen USDP so they can test their systems with a stablecoin that has been operating successfully for over three years, and that has important regulatory and consumer protection attributes.

With this pilot version, a limited number of people will be able to access Novi at the start, and some people may be placed on a waitlist when they sign up.

In Novi, 1 USDP is equal to 1 US dollar. People will send USDP, but their recipients can withdraw the money in their local currency. They can also keep the money in their Novi balance or withdraw it by picking up cash at a nearby location or transferring it to their bank account. However, these options vary by country.

To know more about Novi, visit its official website.

Source: Novi