Facebook’s Novi wallet hits trouble as two top engineers depart

Karthik Subramanian

Facebook’s Novi digital wallet project has been hitting a lot of roadblocks lately as two more top engineers from the team, Riyaz Faizullabhoy, and Nassim Eddequiouaq, have departed from the team and joined the crypto team of Andreesen Horowitz.

Facebook

The digital wallet project has seen many ups and downs and though it’s been a couple of years since Facebook started its project for the Libra coin and the Novi digital wallet, not much seems to have progressed, at least as much as known in the public realm. The company has also said repeatedly that it would continue to proceed with the project through no progress updates or timelines have been shared as yet. This project has come under increasing scrutiny from the regulators the world over and the scrutiny has become even tighter in recent months especially with the privacy concerns surrounding Facebook being raised the world over with the authorities beginning to realize how much power it wields over the day to day affairs of people. All this has only heightened the fears surrounding the cryptocurrency and the digital wallet with any progress being stalled at various points by the regulators.

Faizullabhoy and Eddequiouaq would be serving as the chief technology officer and chief information security officer, respectively, on the crypto focussed team, a16z crypto, of Andreessen which had also recently announced large crypto focussed fund of $2.2 billion.

“Andreessen Horowitz has shown an impressive dedication to advancing the entire crypto ecosystem over the past decade, and we jumped at the chance to join their premier team and provide technical support to their rapidly expanding portfolio,” Faizullabhoy said.

These are not the first departures from the team as Morgan Beller, one of the founders of the team, had left Facebook in 2020 which was another blow for the crypto plans of Facebook.  It is indeed interesting what plans Andreessen has as far as crypto is concerned as its focus has been mainly on the management of funds so far. Whether it is looking to pivot into any kind of development in the digital asset space or whether the hires are simply to bolster the tech team to make better investment decisions is not clear at this time. With the resources and the right team in place, the company could be looking to enter into the development space in a big way which would give the likes of Faizullabhoy and Eddequiouaq a lot more to work with and contribute.

Read this next

Digital Assets

Big Time Generates over $100M in Revenue since Preseason

Innovative game developer Big Time Studios announces that its highly anticipated free-to-play multiplayer action/MMO RPG Big Time, has generated $100M in revenue. According to the team, players transacted a total volume of over $230M, without selling a single token.

Digital Assets

Centralized exchanges are 10 times more popular than DEXs in Western Europe

Western European traders are found to prefer centralized exchanges over decentralized ones as CEX traffic outpaces DEXs by a factor of ten.

Market News

Stock Market Analysis: Is NVDA Losing Its Leadership?

Since the beginning of the week, the S&P 500 Index (US500) has seen a modest increase of about 0.58%, whereas NVDA’s share price has experienced a decline of approximately 3.8%. This recent divergence raises concerns among Nvidia stock investors — could it signify a loss of NVDA’s market leadership?

Industry News

ESG: Australian regulator wins first greenwashing court case against Vanguard

Vanguard admitted that a notable portion of the securities within both the Index and the Fund did not undergo the promised ESG scrutiny.

Fintech, Uncategorized

BitMEX integrates HALO from Solidus Labs for cross-market surveillance

“The recent approval of the Spot Bitcoin ETF has piqued the market’s interest. As a result of price volatility, the trading volumes for crypto derivatives have gone up substantially. HALO, with its advanced technology and crypto-native detection architecture, will enable BitMEX to smoothly and safely scale trade surveillance across its increased trading volumes and provide the necessary safeguards for new product launches.”

Reviews

IUX Broker Review

IUX, recently rebranded from IUX Markets, stands as a multi-asset Forex broker recognized for its regulatory compliance across various jurisdictions.

Industry News

Horizon Software rebrands to Horizon Trading Solutions

“Horizon Trading Solutions has seen accelerated global growth over the past year to meet the rising demand for our trading solutions and built-for-purpose technology offering. The choice to rebrand represents a key part of this development, while maintaining our heritage and history in the industry.”

Market News

USDJPY has surged to levels last witnessed in 2022. Should we consider opening a short position?

The recent resurgence of the US dollar has propelled USD/JPY to new heights, touching levels not seen since 2022. This surge comes against the backdrop of stable short-term yields and ongoing economic data that fails to signal a significant slowdown, prompting questions about the extent of current monetary easing measures.

Digital Assets

DED Trends on Twitter After Memecoin Snapshot Announcement

Polkadot-backed community coin #DED, made it to the trending charts on X, demonstrating community’s engagement and interest behind the memecoin. 

<