Dorsey Says Zuckerberg Should Have Focused on Bitcoin, Not Diem

(Bloomberg) -- Block Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey criticized Meta Platforms Inc.'s failed cryptocurrency project, Diem, saying the company's time would have been better spent focused on advancing Bitcoin.

Dorsey said Tuesday that Meta's approach to Diem, a proposed cryptocurrency formerly known as Libra that came to an unceremonious end this week, wasn't open enough. Instead, Dorsey says Meta was too focused on driving people to its own suite of products, like WhatsApp and Instagram.

“They tried to create a currency that was owned by Facebook -- probably for the right reasons, probably for noble reasons -- but there were also some reasons that would indicate trying to get more and more people onto the Facebook ecosystem,” Dorsey said Tuesday at the MicroStrategy World conference. “They did that instead of using an open protocol and standard like Bitcoin.”

“Hopefully they learned a lot, but I think there was a lot of wasted effort and time,” he added. “Those two years or three years, or however long it's been, could have been spent making Bitcoin more accessible for more people around the world, which would also benefit their Messenger product and Instagram and WhatsApp.”

Meta started Diem in mid-2019 alongside a consortium of other tech and finance companies with hopes the digital currency would become a global rival to Bitcoin and other fiat currencies. The idea was to create something that could be transmitted instantaneously between users, even across borders. Diem was spun out into its own independent organization, meaning Meta was no longer controlling the currency's fate, but the project never moved out from under Meta's shadow. It was ultimately killed by regulatory pushback, which made it difficult for the Diem Association to launch its proposed digital coin.

Meta built a digital wallet for its suite of apps that was intended to hold Diem and allow people to spend or transfer it.

On Monday, the Diem Association confirmed that it sold its remaining assets to Silvergate Capital Corp.

Dorsey, a founder of Twitter Inc., is a long-time Facebook rival. He is also one of the tech industry's most famous and vocal Bitcoin supporters, and believes deeply in the currency's promise to be decentralized -- meaning no individual company or bank would be able to own or control it.

When Meta first announced its plans for Diem, Dorsey was critical of the effort. When asked if he planned to join the association running Diem, he said “hell no.” After Bloomberg reported last week that the Diem Association was in talks to sell its remaining assets, Dorsey tweeted a link to the story with the commentary, “carpe diem.”