Facebook's Digital Currency Now Named Novi

JAKARTA - Facebook doesn't seem to give up on working on cryptocurrency or digital currency projects. This time, the company owned by Mark Zuckerberg changed the name of its digital wallet Calibra to Novi and will be launched later this year.

Novi itself comes from a combination of two Latin languages, namely Novus for 'new' and Via which means 'road'. So that later Novi Financial will become a new way for Facebook to develop its digital wallet service.

Compiled from CNBC International, Wednesday May 27th, Novi is a blockchain platform designed to offer cryptocurrency to anyone using the Facebook app. In the previous project, the Facebook digital wallet service was rejected by various world financial institutions, because it had the potential to be used for criminal acts.

The cryptocurrency service is an important part of Facebook's plan to create new global payments based on blockchain technology. While at the moment the Novi network is being developed in such a way that anyone can build a compatible wallet. It claims that Novi will be a special offering from the tech giant meaning that it will be one that billions of Facebook users might embrace.

Facebook announced the Calibra network last June with hopes of launching a cryptocurrency in 2019, but the project soon mired in political controversy and tight US regulations, not long after partners such as Visa, Stripe and PayPal cut ties.

Not long ago Novi regained her image as a Libra. Mark Zuckerberg's blockchain platform has added e-commerce giant Shopify to its list of partners. Facebook also appears to have partly a regulator by converting Novi from a single global currency into a series of national cryptocurrencies.

Facebook also backed away from its original plans to turn Novi into a decentralized network like Bitcoin, and instead promised to make it more tightly controlled.

The move to change the name Calibra also follows a complaint in 2019 by a banking startup called Current, which points to the striking similarities in the logos of the two brands.

But then, the initial version of Novi will be introduced in several countries when Libra has received permission and license to operate in the world. Novi will allow users to send money via Facebook's instant messaging apps, Messenger and WhatsApp.

It was previously known that Facebook was facing strong pressure from central banks and governments of developed countries to stop the development of Libra. The reason is that this digital currency has a systemic risk when viewed from its users. This event is exactly the same as that experienced by Telegram's blockchain platform, Telegram Open Network (TON) which was nicknamed Gram some time ago.