Head of Meta’s Crypto Efforts, David Marcus, Is Leaving the Company

Dec 1, 2021
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David Marcus, the chief of cryptocurrency efforts at Meta, the corporate previously often called Fb, mentioned on Tuesday that he plans to go away his publish on the finish of the 12 months.

Mr. Marcus, 48, a longtime Silicon Valley govt in funds and digital finance, labored on many initiatives throughout his seven years on the social media firm. Most just lately, he spearheaded Meta’s push into a worldwide digital foreign money that may very well be utilized by Fb and WhatsApp customers to transmit funds throughout borders. The undertaking, initially referred to as Libra, was later rebranded Diem after dealing with pushback from regulators.

“I stay as passionate as ever in regards to the want for change in our funds and monetary programs,” Mr. Marcus mentioned in a series of tweets. “My entrepreneurial DNA has been nudging me for too many mornings in a row to proceed ignoring it.”

Mr. Marcus based Zong, a cellular funds start-up that was acquired by the digital finance big PayPal. After rising rapidly at PayPal, he was recruited to Fb to guide its Messenger app, rising it to achieve a whole bunch of tens of millions of customers.

Whereas at Fb, Mr. Marcus was closely concerned within the rise of Bitcoin and different cryptocurrencies, appearing as an adviser to corporations like Coinbase.

He parlayed that data into Libra, which was a pet undertaking of Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief govt. Libra was an try to democratize finance so that individuals may use Fb’s apps — together with Messenger and WhatsApp — to ship cryptocurrency to at least one one other the world over, which they might ultimately change for native currencies.

The undertaking stalled when a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers questioned the corporate’s efforts and the way a lot energy the social community had over world social media. Mr. Marcus testified in regards to the efforts to Congress in 2019, although it did little to assuage considerations.

The Libra cryptocurrency was ultimately rebranded Diem, whereas the corporate’s efforts at a crypto pockets have been referred to as Novi. The mishmash of names typically has been complicated, even for firm insiders.

Mr. Marcus didn’t specify his future plans. Spokespeople for Meta didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.



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Supply- nytimes