Facebook is reportedly exploring options to create its own cryptocurrency, according to the latest report from a tech news website cheddar. Facebook is reportedly very serious about it.
According to the report, Facebook is currently working to explore options to create its own virtual tokens. These virtual tokens will be used to make electronic payments by billions of Facebook users around the world.
When contacted by cheddar their spokesman neither confirmed or denied the news.
“Like many other companies, Facebook is exploring ways to leverage the power of blockchain technology. Their new small team will be exploring many different applications. We don’t have anything further to share.”
Facebook is considering to enter the crypto market for quite some time now. The news was first reported by Recode that a new team is being designed specifically to work on blockchain technology.
That new team will be lead by David Marcus, who was previously running the Messager app group of the company. The team will be comprised of less than a dozen people but we will see the key Instagram executives joining the new team.
David Marcus is reportedly the right choice to lead the blockchain team because of his previous payment expertise as the former president of PayPal. Within his one month of joining the company, the decision was made regarding splitting the messenger from the facebook app. He has also a keen interest in cryptocurrencies, as since December he has been a part of the board of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.
He later confirmed the report in a Facebook message “After nearly four unbelievably rewarding years leading Messenger, I have decided it was time for me to take on a new challenge. I’m setting up a small group to explore how to best leverage Blockchain across Facebook, starting from scratch.”
According to a report by International Data Corporation (IDC) a market research “It is expected that the global spending on blockchain solutions will reach $2.1 billion in 2018, that is double of the amount about $945 million that was spent in 2017.
So it is the right time for the Facebook to make the move and grab its market share in the blockchain technology. There are a lot of speculations that are being made about the nature of the coins that will be used by 2 billion facebook customers for online payments. But due to the lack of information currently, we cant predict anything as the company has a strict policy to remain tight-lipped regarding the nature of the coins.
This technology might also help the company to deal with data privacy controversies that are prevailing recently. Most of the customers are now more concerned regarding how their data is being used and shared so that technology might be beneficial to them.
Source: Cheddar
