Facebook to release its own cryptocurrency

A recent report by Bloomberg says that the social media giant Facebook is planning to release its own cryptocurrency. Interestingly, the purported cryptocurrency will be used on Whatsapp messaging platform to transfer money and targeted to the Indian remittance market.

Essentially, this crypto project is going to be a Stablecoin – the type of cryptocurrency which is pegged on US dollar or valuable materials like gold. As quoted on Bloomberg, when questioned about release timeline, the company responded as below.

Like many other companies, Facebook is exploring ways to leverage the power of blockchain technology. This new small team is exploring many different applications. We don’t have anything further to share

Certainly, this project is far from release, because it’s still working on the strategy, including a plan for custody assets.

Statistically speaking the WhatsApp has over 200 million monthly active users in India. Also, it is one of the largest markets for remittances, with migrants sending $69.59 billion back home in 2017 alone, according to the latest annual report from the World Bank.

Recently, Facebook has been actively hiring to form its blockchain team – to explore the emerging technology. So far the team size has grown up to a size of 40 and looking to add more members to its team with expertise in data science, software engineering, and marketing.

More on Stablecoin Projects

Although the stablecoin holds a lot of hope, there have been instances where projects came to closure very soon. Reportedly, there were more than 120 similar ventures at some point. The stablecoin known as Basis recently closed after eight months of its launch.

The root cause behind its end was lack of apparent way around being classified as security as opposed to a currency, which could significantly reduce the number of potential buyers.

The all-time famous stablecoin – Tether has also been under severe scrutiny and a lot of controversy due to its lack of transparency and concerning activities. Perhaps the refusal to audit has raised a lot of concerns among the community and yet to answer all the queries.

With the advent of the blockchain, more and more messaging platform like Kakao, LINE, and Telegram, have already embraced this tech. But with this stablecoin, it is yet to be seen if Facebook can come up with a most stable and used crypto product. What’s more, the Indian government is been fighting with crypto for quite a long time now, so certainly the success of this project might change the situation.

Do you think the Facebook’s stablecoin will bring in major shift in crypto space? Let us know in the comment section below.