Facebook Inc. says its long-awaited digital wallet Novi is ready to come to market.

In a post on Medium today, Marcus (pictured), the head of F2, for Facebook Financial, said the Novi wallet will be integrated into the Facebook app. However, he did not give a specific time as to when that will happen other than indicating that it’s ready to go.

The Novi wallet is being pitched as a way to transfer money easily between people. Speaking in broader terms, Marcus said a payments system for a digital-only world would be a “global, open, interoperable, near real-time, cheap” and a “compliant global protocol for money.” That system would “enable people, creators, and businesses to move money around seamlessly and to innovate via programmable money.”

“Change is long overdue,” Marcus said, adding that Novi is regulated and that the system can exceed the high standards of compliance that will be demanded.

“We feel that it’s unreasonable to delay delivering the benefits of cheaper, interoperable, more accessible digital payments,” Marcus said. “We will continue to persevere and demonstrate we can be a trusted player in this industry — and one that’s bringing positive change by being in it.”

If it does come to market after two years in the making, the initiative will have survived a nearly unprecedented amount of scrutiny.

The current incarnation of Novi is different from its initial Libra cryptocurrency service, now called Diem, and the Calibra wallet, as announced by Facebook in 2019. It didn’t take long for the attacks to begin, culminating in one congressman comparing Libra to the 9/11 attacks.

As support for Libra rapidly dropped, Facebook announced a major shift and a name change to Novi. As it stands, Novi is the wallet provider that will deal with a stablecoin pegged to real-world assets issued by the Diem Association. It is not as controversial as Libra once was, but it still faces issues.

After Diem announced in May that it had partnered with Silvergate Capital Corp. to issue the Diem USD stablecoin, the partnership hit regulatory issues. The Block reported on Aug. 16 that the Diem Association is currently looking for a different stablecoin partner.

The issues aside, some are positive about the prospects for Novi.

“Facebook’s new digital wallet, Novi, represents probably the first real exposure to cryptocurrencies for consumers on a global scale,” Jack O’Holleran, chief executive of blockchain scalability platform provider SKALE Labs Inc., told SiliconANGLE. “Given their experience with creating products that are usable by everyday people, I expect this to create a significant movement towards mainstreaming crypto.”

Photo: Anthoby Quintano/Flickr