Facebook, the social networking giant with more than 2 billion users, has held talks recently with crypto exchanges about listing of its crypto coin. The New York Times reported on Feb 28th that ‘Facebook is hoping to succeed where cryptocurrency start-up projects failed’, with its secretive cryptocurrency project.
The project is expected to be out in the first half of the year to its users.
The NYT reports, citing the anonymous sources, that Facebook has already begun shopping the “Facebook coin” around to unnamed crypto exchanges.
In December 2018, Bloomberg reported that Facebook is looking to develop a stablecoin for its WhatsApp users for money transfer.
Facebook has reportedly more than 50 engineers working on its project that is likely to become a stablecoin, attached to a basket of different foreign currencies rather than just the dollar. And that stablecoin is backed by funds held in Facebook bank accounts.
According to the Times report, working with exchanges would take at least some of the regulatory burden off the company, since the exchanges would be responsible for holding the digital currency and vetting customers.
But if Facebook goes with a crypto-currency it does not entirely control, it will be harder for the company to make money from transaction fees and easier for crooks to use the coin for illegal purposes.
Facebook plans to integrate its cryptocurrency with its messaging apps- WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram, which would give the coin an unprecedented level of exposure. Already 2.7 billion monthly users are using the aforementioned apps.
Several other companies have recently introduced so-called stablecoins, linked to the value of the dollar.
Meanwhile, in February, the CEO and founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, said he is “potentially interested” in using Blockchain technology and acquired a blockchain startup that is specialized in the development of smart contracts.
