Meta’s interest and attempts to enter the crypto market.
As cryptocurrencies are gaining popularity as the days goes by, each and every firm, institution is looking forward to either invest in cryptocurrency or build a cryptocurrency of their own and enter the crypto market. Meta (earlier known as Facebook) also is no different. Meta has been consistently trying to enter the cryptocurrency market. Meta is focussed in forming out a stablecoin of its own. At first Meta was thinking to create several stablecoins for distinct regions in the world. After a lot of discussions, Meta finally abandoned the idea of creating different stablecoins and planned to create one stablecoin. The name of the stablecoin was “Libra”
Libra and its journey.
When Meta’s Libra was debuted in June 2019, it drew a lot of attention. PayPal, Stripe, Visa, and other companies were among its members. However, because of congressional opposition, the project quickly ran into trouble. Regulators were concerned that such a huge populace could have such power over a global economic undertaking. Mark Zuckerberg was called to testify about his stablecoin, and he was told to postpone the project. The high-profile members of the Libra Association rapidly dropped out after the outcry. The dream of launching a cryptowallet called Calibra was also not realized. In 2020, Meta tried to come back by changing the tarnished name of Libra to Diem.
Diem and its journey.
As soon as Diem came into existence, it started facing regulatory backlash. German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz went on to call the project “A wolf in sheep’s clothing.” He also said that, Europe and Germany will not accept its entry into the market until the regulatory issues are addressed. He was of the opinion that, cryptocurrency monopoly should not be there with private firms and institutions and it must remain in the hands of state. Diem also, after a lot of struggles failed in realizing Meta’s dream.
LightSpark – a spark in Meta’s dream of entering crypto world.
Meta finally launched LightSpark after years of effort. Andreessen Horowitz, Paradigm, Coatue, and Matrix partners all invested in LightSpark. LightSpark will help firms interested in leveraging Bitcoin’s Lightning Network build backend infrastructure. LightSpark promises to make small transactions like filling up at a gas station easier to pay for with low costs via payment channels. Despite initial opposition, LightSpark quickly gained notice and acceptance as a way to send modest payments without additional expenses.
Lets Look at a tweet below:
I wanted to share that we are starting a new company called @lightspark to explore, build and extend the capabilities and utility of #Bitcoin. As a first step, we’re actively assembling a team to dive deeper into the Lightning Network. (1/3)
— David Marcus (@davidmarcus) May 12, 2022
Its understandable that David Marcus is thrilled to announce the entry of Meta into the crypto market via the project LightSpark. He also acknowledged that it’s their first step in assembling a team to dive deeper into the lightning network and the crypto market.
