The Facebook Calibra wallet, which is a wallet designed for use with the Libra coin, recently changed its name to Novi. Facebook plans to roll out the Novi wallet in a few select locations before it finally launches in much of the world. The release will occur once the Libra mainnet goes live.
Part of Major Changes to Facebook Libra
The Libra Association has recently made major changes to the Libra coin. These changes are being made to appease regulators. As part of the changes, The Libra Association made changes to the Libra coin whitepaper. Amongst the changes is the creation of fiat-backed stablecoins. These stablecoins would be created for different countries and they would be used to back the value of the Libra Coin.
It represents a major change from the original plan to have a basket of currencies that would back the value of the Libra coin directly. The changes have led to criticism that Libra would not be able to achieve its visions of a decentralized financial system. Even before the changes, there was criticism about Libra. Many in the crypto sector felt that the Libra coin was not a decentralized coin but a centrally controlled stablecoin.
Regulatory Pressure
Since its launch, the Libra project has been the subject of harsh criticism from regulators and lawmakers. Part of that criticism had to do with how Libra was structured and part of it had to do with the timing.
When the Libra project was announced, Facebook was embroiled in a major scandal, where it was announced of leaking user data. There were accusations that the data might have been inappropriately used during the US presidential elections. The mishandling of user data was still fresh in the minds of lawmakers and financial regulators when the Facebook Libra project was announced.
It caused genuine concerns amongst lawmakers over how Facebook would handle the financial data it collects from users of Libra. Besides that, there is the fact that Facebook has a user base of billions of users. It is a big company and regulators fear the allow Libra to launch would be allowing a private company to launch its own currency. As a result, finance ministers in various European nations have vowed to block Facebook Libra from launching in their territories.
The Reason for the Name Change
According to a tweet by David Marcus, the co-creator of Libra, there was a lot of unnecessary confusion between Calibra products and the Libra coin. As a result, they had decided to change the name of Calibra to Novi. Marcus made a post on Facebook news in which he talked about the new name. He said that the word Novi was inspired by the Latin words Novus, which means new, and via, which means way.
Novi will come as a standalone app. It will also be integrated into the WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger apps. Before a user can use Novi, they will need to have their identity verified using a government-issued ID.
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