Episode Details

FaceBook will launch a new cryptocurrency the Diem and a financial wallet the Novi to complement it. Target date is early 2021.  It will be backed by the US dollar so it will not be digital in the way that Bitcoin is digital. Further, it will have a governing board and the Diem Association which will include FB and other investors will be based in Switzerland. The strategic objective is to create a global consumer finance company based on FB's 2 billion users in 192 countries. Financial transactions will be instantaneous, secure and cheap to finance global retail consumption which has exploded during the Covid lockdowns. But is Facebook the right vehicle for such an undertaking ?