Facebook decided to indulge itself into the cryptocurrency business and was originally going with the name Libra Coin for its online currency, but it has recently rebranded itself as Diem Coin. Similar to what they did with their wallet app initially branded as Calibra, which was dismissed and is now known as Novi Wallet. But something is off here as their wallet application isn’t the main thing, even if they changed its name it would be normal, but why change the name of their virtual currency? Let’s take a look and try to find why Facebook changed Libra Coin to Diem Coin.
Diem Coin is a mere Digital Currency because of the controlled Permissioned nature of the coin and the role Facebook plays in Diem Association, they may call it cryptocurrency but it negates the core principles of cryptocurrency
Per Diem Lawsuits?
Foremost what does Diem mean? Per diem is a term that is generally used to describe something that fixedly happens every day. If you get sued per diem, a certain number of lawsuits against you each day. Hence, it is a great choice for naming something related to finances as Diem. But has anyone thought of this idea before? Yes, another company known as Diem, which is related to finances and has sent judicial threats against Libra project’s rebranding strategy to “Diem”. Chris Adelsbach, co-founder and leading European fintech investor, told the media outlet:
It wouldn’t have taken that much effort for Facebook to find out if there’s another Diem in financial services … They obviously took the view that ‘we can just crush them, we’re Facebook.
Facebook hasn’t responded to Catre Diem, and there haven’t been any announcements too so nobody knows what plan of action Facebook will take. This hasn’t been the first time if Facebook ends up being taken to court like recently the Federal Trade Commission and 48 states filed litigation last week about their alleged domination and anti-competitive conduct in their flagship social media company. This will be one of the many roadblocks that Facebook will face when diving into the crypto trade.
Why is Libra Rebranded as Diem?
When establishing and breaking the news of Facebook’s cryptocurrency a lot of speculations and commitments were made like making remittances easier, helping people with secure payments. A lot of comparisons were made between Libra Coin and Bitcoin but, that eventually died out as if the two were same then there would be no point in duplicating a cryptocurrency. On our website, a brief post was made explaining how to buy Libra Coin and how to utilize it as well, which also highlights some new developments on how Libra Coin might be “Colloquially, Shitcoin” as Mr. Davidson put its.
All was good but in the end, this currency will be used to collect data about you as it is a permissioned blockchain and that causes problems. Permissioned blockchain means the authority will be observing every payment and everything that you think is hidden will be known by the authority like Facebook in this case. Facebook has always been criticized because of its misuse of data and breach of user’s privacy. If Facebook was a part of the project then there would be fewer issues but originally this idea was proposed and now being turned into a reality mostly because of Facebook. Hence to displace all the commotion and to show Facebook as a mere part of this project, the idea of rebranding took place.
In an announcement, CEO Stuart Levey of Diem Association (which was previously known as Libra Association) admitted more or less that the new name is an effort to distance Facebook from previous controversies.
“The Diem project will provide a simple platform for fintech innovation to thrive and enable consumers and businesses to conduct instantaneous, low-cost, highly secure transactions, We are committed to doing so in a way that promotes financial inclusion – expanding access to those who need it most, and simultaneously protecting the integrity of the financial system by deterring and detecting illicit conduct. We are excited to introduce Diem – a new name that signals the project’s growing maturity and independence.
Stuart Levey CEO Diem Association views about the change of coin branding
Hence Facebook can be seen distancing itself into the backseat of this project and presenting itself as a partner only.
The Rushed Identity Change
Facebook’s shift from Libra Coin to Diem Coin alongwith their new name for the association “Diem Association” , seems very rushed and is just to distance the bad PR which Libra coin got since its plan of launch. Members of association dropping out like autumn leave adds to the damage and the fact that their own website homepage still shows “Introducing Libra” indicates the rushed effort they did and as it wasn’t text inside their websites the ctrl+f function didn’t probably work to find all ‘Libra’ words and replace them with ‘Diem’
Verdict
Facebook already has a lot of users and has tons of data on people all around the globe, it handling (presumed future) major payment service will grant them a lot of power. Being called out for spying, selling and using the data has become a norm for Facebook. If the Diem Coin and Novi wallet become successful, a lot of complications will take place. Already a lot of partners like Visa, Stripe, eBay and more from the Facebook-led cryptocurrency Diem Association have left while PayPal being the first to drop out from the association.
These partners represented reputation and more accessibility, but with them pulling out of the action, will cost Facebook even more. Facebook wanted full control over the basket of currencies, but Distinguished VP Analyst Furlonger told Adweek
“The basket approach is going to take a long time to figure out and require a lot more in terms of integration, more maturity in standards, more fungibility, better cohesion among regulators,”
This suggests that Facebook has a long way to go in terms of being able to handle Diem Coin and its wallet, which is absolutely correct. Facebook’s crypto project seems to be going downhill, but they won’t let go of it so easily. Facebook’s monopoly on user data will greatly increase if Diem Coin becomes a success and since inception of Facebook we have seen that they know the art of pulling things off. As of now Ripple is something which comes in direct competition of Diem Coin being a centralized and control cryptocurrency and it is yet to see how they will react or move their pace up the competition.
Follow Diem Coin on Coin Market Cap: Facebook Diem (formerly Libra) and you will be updated once it is listed as currently it is not released thus unlisted.
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