Facebook Coin (later Libra, then Diem) was 📝Facebook's speculated and eventually formalized cryptocurrency project, first hinted at in a 2018 mission-statement post by CEO 📝Mark Zuckerberg that mentioned decentralizing technology only in passing.
The project was formally unveiled in 2019 as Libra, a stablecoin backed by a consortium including 📝PayPal, Visa, and Mastercard, alongside a wallet called Calibra. Regulators worldwide pushed back hard, fearing a Facebook-issued global currency could destabilize national monetary systems and enable money laundering; major partners withdrew, and the project rebranded to Diem in late 2020 in an attempt to distance itself from Facebook. Diem never launched — the Diem Association dissolved in February 2022, selling its remaining intellectual property and assets to Silvergate Capital for $182 million.
This looked, to me, like another instance of 📝Techno-Fundamentalism — not that the underlying technology lacked value, but that the decision read as unconscientious desperation rather than genuine conviction.