Hello and welcome to this week's edition of Overbit News. In our first item of the day, we cover how two of Facebook's top engineers on its blockchain and digital currency project left the business to join Andreessen Horowitz's crypto team; the venture capital firm informed CNBC on Monday.
Riyaz Faizullabhoy and Nassim Eddequiouaq have spent the last two years developing Facebook's Novi digital wallet, once known as Calibra. The endeavour has been met with significant opposition from regulators and lawmakers worldwide, and a number of its high-profile officials have left.
Faizullabhoy and Eddequiouaq will serve as chief technology officer and chief information security officer on Andreessen's crypto team, dubbed a16z Crypto.
In June, the business announced the launch of a new $2.2 billion cryptocurrency-focused fund.
After working on Facebook's Novi digital currency wallet for the past two years, Riyaz Faizullabhoy has joined Andreessen Horowitz as chief technology officer of the venture capital firm's a16z Crypto unit. Calibra and its Libra digital currency were introduced in 2019 with much anticipation, with the company hoping to deploy the items in 2020.
Morgan Beller, one of Facebook's crypto business creators, had her post as Novi's head of strategy in September 2020 to join venture capital firm NFX. Kevin Weil, another co-creator, resigned in March to join the satellite imagery firm Planet Labs. Marc Andreessen, who co-founded a16z in 2009, had been on Facebook's board for a year before launching his firm.
According to its website, the organisation has made more than a dozen investments, including in digital currencies, trading services, and other crypto funds.
Nassim Eddequiouaq has joined Andreessen Horowitz as a chief information security officer of the venture capital firm's a16z Crypto unit, after spending the last two years working on Facebook's Novi digital currency wallet. He explained, "They were doing a Facebook wallet,"
"Prior to joining Facebook, the pair worked at Anchorage, a digital asset bank start-up. At Facebook, they built the technology architecture to digital house currency in the company's Novi wallet. "Crypto is a once-in-a-generation step change in technology with unlimited potential to empower everyone," Eddequiouaq stated in a statement. "It also brings a unique set of complex security challenges that every crypto project needs to recognise and address."
Closing out this week's edition of Overbit News, we take a look at the latest take that JPMorgan Chase CEO, Jamie Dimon, has decided to share on Bitcoin. It seems that Dimon isn't a fan of Bitcoin, the most valuable cryptocurrency by market capitalisation.
"I personally think that Bitcoin is worthless," Dimon said during an Institute of International Finance event on Monday, CNBC Pro reported. "I don't want to be a spokesperson - I don't care. It makes no difference to me," he said.
Though, Dimon made it clear that his own feelings had no bearing on JPMorgan and its offerings.
"Our clients are adults. They disagree. That's what makes markets. So, if they want to have access to buy yourself Bitcoin, we can't custody it but we can give them legitimate, as clean as possible, access."
He held true to that statement: CNBC reported that it started giving its wealth management clients access to crypto funds in August. On top of that, JPMorgan said it would roll out a digital currency called JPM Coin, and in October 2020, the firm created a new unit for blockchain projects.
This statement from Dimon indeed echoed his recent words. He told Axios CEO Jim VandeHei that Bitcoin has "No intrinsic value." And although he thinks Bitcoin will be around long term, "I've always believed it'll be made illegal someplace, like China made it illegal, so I think it's a little bit of fool's gold." Dimon also told VandeHei that he thinks "Regulators are going to regulate the hell out of it.". All in all, this recent report on Dimon is certainly newsworthy, but it's hard to say we're stunned.
That's all for this week's edition of Overbit News. Thanks so much for reading, and take care until next time!