Facebook is “hoping to succeed where Bitcoin failed” with its extremely secretive cryptocurrency project, a New York Times (NYT) article published today, Feb. 28, argues.
Citing multiple anonymous sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the day’s pieces together the alleged contours of the project, which can reportedly aim to integrate cryptocurrency payments into its messaging services.
Notably, Facebook plans to rehaul its messaging infrastructure and integrate its 3 wholly-owned apps — WhatsApp, messenger and Instagram — under one canopy. Because the Times notes, this is able to offer a future crypto token with exposure across the combined 2.7 billion UN agency use the 3 services every month.
A crypto-powered payments system that might operate from among a messaging system, the days notes, is a plan being hotly pursued by many international messaging giants, like Korea’s Kakao, Line in Japan, and Russian-developed telegram.
According to NYT, Facebook launched its crypto project — led by ex-PayPal president David Marcus — shortly once wire had sealed near $1.7 billion in 2 personal initial coin providing (ICO) rounds for its forthcoming token and blockchain platform wire Open Network (TON).
Facebook has reportedly used over fifty engineers to develop its cryptocurrency, 3 unknown sources told the NYT. An extra 2 told the newspaper that the importance of keeping the project covert is specified the relevant team has been given a workplace with separate key-card access to keep the details private from other staff.
Notably, 5 sources claiming to own been briefed on the team’s work alleged the forthcoming coin was possibly to be a fiat-pegged stablecoin — tied to the worth of 3 totally different national fiat currencies, instead of only 1.
The NYT notes, citing the anonymous sources, that Facebook has already begun searching the “Facebook coin” around to unknown crypto exchanges.
The question of centralization — and how far Facebook can permit its digital coin transactions to be decentralized, remains moot, as per NYT. Moreover, the times cites business experts who argued that Facebook is probably going to face the identical technological limitations and regulative hurdles that have beset stalwart cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC).
As reported, unconfirmed reports of Facebook’s plans to integrate a cryptocurrency for WhatsApp users antecedently surfaced in December 2018. At the time, anonymous sources equally recommended the token would be a stablecoin.
The trickle of information regarding the project aligns with the last year's job listings for blockchain talent on Facebook’s career page, as Top Market Group has reported.
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