WhatsApp payment service in India was launched in November 2020, by June 2021 it was made available to all users in India. In the USA, looking at the higher number of people using crypto wallets, WhatsApp has added a cryptocurrency payments feature for a limited number of users. The feature lets users send and receive cryptocurrency from within a chat.
The important thing to note about this feature is that it is powered by Novi, Meta’s new digital wallet. A few weeks ago it was launched as a pilot project
Head of Novi, Stephane Kasriel in a series of tweets announced,” We often hear that people use WhatsApp to coordinate sending money to loved ones, and Novi enables people to do that securely, instantly, and with no fees. Payments will appear directly in people’s chats.
Novi is currently available in Guatemala and the United States. In Guatemala, it is available as a stand-alone application whereas in the USA it is available with WhatsApp as a feature.
When you add money to your Novi account, it automatically converts it to USDP. One USDP equals one US dollar.
Earlier in 2019, Facebook announced its cryptocurrency plans with ‘Libra’. The main difference between libra and bitcoin is that libra is a permissioned ledger where only a person with permission can have access to the ledger.
