On Jan. 31, Meta, formerly known as Facebook, announced that it was pulling from its stablecoin project, Diem, formerly known as Libra. Intellectual property and other assets related to the operations of the Diem Payment Network were to be sold to Silvergate Capital Corporation, essentially meaning the end to Mark Zuckerberg and his corporations’ stablecoin aspirations, at least in their current shape. This also marks the end of a once-groundbreaking initiative that was revealed in 2019 with a promise to bring a global alternative to fiat money to Facebook’s 2-billion-strong user base. Here is how this plan went from the …

The year 2021 seems to be a big year for the blockchain world as several projects, such as nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and centralized decentralized finance exchanges (CeDeFis), are taking the central stage. Also at the forefront is Facebook’s Libra. Not too long ago, the media was rife with the news that the world’s largest social media network was developing plans for a global digital currency. Then, after a while, it looked like Facebook shelved plans for it. Disputes with regulators around the globe had a hand in delaying and redirecting Facebook’s plans a bit. Instead of backing out, Facebook decided …

In a tweet Monday evening, President Trump announced the departure of William Barr from the office of Attorney General. The announcement comes the same day that the Electoral College convened and confirmed Joe Biden's victory in the November election. Barr, long one of Trump's most loyal allies, will be stepping down on December 23. Under Barr's leadership, the Department of Justice has ramped up its actions in crypto, including high-profile criminal charges against BitMEX's leadership and the release of a new framework for crypto enforcement in October. The latter half of this year has also seen the largest seizures of …

The Libra Association, which manages Facebook’s quiet cryptocurrency project, has appointed a general counsel to oversee the development of its forthcoming payment system. In an official press release, the Libra Association Wednesday introduced Saumya Bhavsar as the new general counsel of Libra Networks, the entity charged with operating the blockchain-based payment system. Bhavsar comes with two decades of experience in the financial services industry serving in various legal, regulatory and compliance roles. She previously worked with United State and European banks and regulatory agencies, including Credit Suisse, the European Commission and the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Jeffrey Emmett, managing …

Coming every Sunday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link. Top Stories This Week Goldman Sachs butts heads with Bloomberg over Bitcoin One of the world’s biggest investment banks caused a stink this week when it declared cryptocurrencies are not an asset class. In a leaked PowerPoint presentation, Goldman Sachs warned Bitcoin doesn’t provide diversification benefits, dampen volatility in a portfolio or show evidence of hedging inflation. One damning …

Facebook-owned digital wallet Calibra rebranded itself as Novi earlier today, sharing new details about the project. The primary reason for the name change was to avoid the confusion with the Libra cryptocurrency, a representative for Novi told Cointelegraph. “When we announced Libra and Calibra last June, we wanted to demonstrate that Calibra, the digital wallet, was closely linked to Libra, the global payment system. Both brands were born out of the same vision, to give people more access to the global economy. However, we’ve found that Calibra and Libra sounded too similar and people were getting confused, so we set …

In a recent presentation at the 3rd ZKProof Workshop, the Calibra research team presented Distributed Auditing Proofs of Liabilities, or DAPOL, protocol designed to make improvements to the existing distributed audit procedures. The team led by Konstantinos Chalkias, contends that their protocol builds upon and improves existing methods by introducing additional optimization and enhanced privacy. It allows entities to undergo a distributed audit of their liabilities and it works in any situation where an entity does not have a motivation to overstate its liabilities. The latter is the reason why DAPOL cannot be used to audit assets. For example, a …

Despite existing concerns that blockchain is not mature enough to bring the new era of payments, the technology is being increasingly explored by global central banks. Blockchain technology meanwhile remains at the core of Facebook’s digital currency Libra, according to a top project executive. Since Libra’s white paper release in June 2019, the not-yet-launched stablecoin has continued to rely on blockchain architecture, Libra Association’s vice chair Dante Disparte explained. Blockchain unlocks payment network interoperability In an April 28 interview with financial publication Central Banking, Disparte outlined a number of structural benefits provided by blockchain implementation. As part of the blockchain-powered …

Facebook’s Calibra team have published a research paper outlining a new method for Byzantine fault tolerance, or BFT, testing. Dubbed “Twins”, Claibra’s innovation comprises a lightweight method for testing a network’s BFT implementation. Calibra pioneers BFT testing strategy The paper asserts that while BFT systems “have seen extensive study for more than two decades,” the field “lack[s] a principled strategy for testing BFT implementations.” The testing method runs two instances of a node with the same identity to emulate Byzantine behavior — “including equivocation, double voting, and losing internal state.” Calibra asserts that Twins allows its operator to “systematically generate …

Facebook’s Calibra is looking to create 50 new roles for its workforce in Ireland, as the firm seemingly bucks the trend of private-sector layoffs during the coronavirus crisis. An Irish Times report on April 20 revealed that Calibra’s small team in Dublin is set to be significantly expanded this year, with Facebook noting that its Irish operations are “critically important” for its roadmap. Calibra’s Irish expansion still depends on regulators’ cooperation Based in Ireland since 2009, Facebook employs 5,000 people in the country across its various partner firms, such as Instagram and WhatsApp. Founded in 2019, Calibra has been at …

Digital lead for Calibra Ben Maurer gave a presentation on Facebook's Move programming language at the Stanford Blockchain Conference on Feb. 19. Move was created by Facebook to provide a safe and programmable foundation for the Libra blockchain. Maurer explained that Move will make it easier and more secure to program financial applications that run on Libra. He said: “Move is a new smart contract language built into the core of Libra that is designed to bring a modern approach to today’s financial systems.” Maurer mentioned that Libra’s mission is to solve the lack of access to financial services, noting …

Facebook’s Calibra is on the hunt for two marketing specialists as the company continues development of its Libra stablecoin project. The company is looking for a head of media, digital marketing and community and a head of brand for the Calibra digital wallet unit. The roles ask for applicants with a minimum of 15 years of experience in their respective fields, as well as upwards of ten years of leadership and people management experience. Per the job ads, the proposed head of media will be engaged in building acquisition and cross-sell strategies, creation of customer segments and audiences that can …