Former head of cryptocurrencies at Facebook heads blockchain startup

David Marcus, the former head of cryptocurrencies at Facebook and Novi crypto wallet, has announced the launch of his own blockchain startup Lightspark and announced his «commitment» to bitcoin.

According to his Twitter page, bitcoin is «the most secure and trusted form of decentralized value storage and settlement.»

I never understood the schadenfreude between the #Ethereum and #Bitcoin communities. These two will end up being complementary. One as a protocol for the decentralized web, the other for the most secure and trusted form of decentralized store-of-value and settlement.

— David Marcus (@davidmarcus) July 18, 2022

On May 12, Marcus also announced on Twitter the launch of a new cryptocurrency platform, Lightspark, which will «explore, develop, and expand the capabilities and benefits of bitcoin.» Among the investors who have already joined the startup are: Andreessen Horowitz, Paradigm, Thrive Capital, Coatue, Felix Capital, Ribbit Capital, Matrix Partners, Zeev Ventures.

David Marcus is not the only ex-Meta employee to start working on his own project. Recently, former Meta developers Avery Ching and Moe Shaik announced their work on the development of the new Aptos blockchain. Interestingly, it was Ching and Shaik who worked on the Diem project in 2021, which was supposed to become a «world-class cryptocurrency exchange» — then Diem was «not approved» by regulators, so Meta launched the Novi pilot crypto project (headed by David Marcus).