Bitcoin enthusiast Jack Dorsey recently cheered Facebook Founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg's failed attempt at global payments with a dollar-backed stablecoin, Diem.
Facebook, now Meta Platforms (FB), has reportedly dropped plans to have its own currency and started liquidating assets from its Diem Association unit.
Dorsey, who left Twitter (TWTR) in November to focus on Block Inc (SQ), on Wednesday tweeted, "carpe diem" while sharing the news. The Latin phrase means "seize the day" but more specifically diem was the stablecoin Facebook wanted to give to people to trade and make payments.
Social media posts describe the development as "inevitable" and a "dumb idea" which even critics have earlier said was doomed to fail.
Facebook was working on a project to let people to use its dollar-backed stablecoin, diem, to make transactions, after it tempered its original cryptocurrency ambitions over regulatory backlash.
Another Twitter user with the handle "@Studio2bA" said, Zuckerberg is a control freak who does not belong to the crypto world characteristic of a decentralized internet.
Facebook's announcement of its own proposed virtual currency, Libra, in June 2019 was meant to accelerate the adoption of alternative currency and payment systems, lifting the prospects of other cryptocurrencies in the process.
However, the company's plans drew instant scrutiny from regulators including the Federal Reserve, due to various policy concerns.
"Libra raises many serious concerns regarding privacy, money laundering, consumer protection and financial stability,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell had said in July 2019.
Facebook had pitched the project for people who lack access to financial services and could use the company's instant messaging apps WhatsApp and Messenger to send money.
Facebook also assembled Libra Association to build this global cryptocurrency-based payments network with backing from financial partners including payment giants Visa (V) and Mastercard (MA). The two companies eventually withdrew their support from the project.
The move comes at a time when Zuckerberg is transitioning the company away from its much-criticized social network and related family of apps and into what he calls an "embodied Internet" or the metaverse.
Could this throw a wrench into Zuckerberg's $10 billion gamble is anybody's guess. For now, his legacy remains riddled with errors.
