For several months (maybe years,) people have been expecting the moment in which Facebook, perhaps the world’s most prominent social media platform, launches its own cryptocurrency, or associated token to interact and perform payments within the vast ecosystem.
And, for a few weeks, it has been known that Facebook is indeed looking for significant investments, reportedly in the $1 billion area, to fund the creation of a stablecoin. In fact, Facebook has been designing the token to keep a stable value, pegged to several foreign currencies that will be held in accounts.
Nathaniel Popper, a New York Times journalist who specialized in technology, was the first one to report, in early April, Facebook’s funding intentions. According to the press man, the platform will seek funds using that path because it intends to line up with the modus operandi of crypto projects and their decentralized nature.
Project “Supporters”
Now, the Wall Street Journal explained in recent days that the social media giants are talking with prominent payment processing companies Visa and Master Card, and also with First Data Corp, about potentially joining the project as supporters.
The precise way in which these companies would provide support is not yet known. The WSJ cites people familiar with the matter as sources. The crypto asset is supposed to have “FB Coin” as a name, and its primary purpose would be serving as a token for in-house payments to users.
The process is still in the nascent stages, and very little information has been leaked about the way the token will function. In light of the aforementioned, it seems that there are still lots of options under the consideration of Facebook’s officials, including using it for payments via the users’ Facebook profile.
Smaller Financial Investments
“Facebook is also talking to e-commerce companies and apps about accepting the coin, and would seek smaller financial investments from those partners, one of the people said,” the WSJ report further added.
The FB Coin, which is supposed to be closely related to fiat currencies, is already drawing interest from within the cryptocurrency circles, including the famous investor Tim Draper. The Bitcoin bull was, according to reports, expected to meet with Facebook executives to talk about investment options.
MIT’s Catalini is Working with Facebook
According to a well known crypto news site, MIT’s Christian Catalini is working with Facebook, helping the social media network in its quest to successfully venture in the cryptocurrency world.
The token is said to be very versatile: it would be used to perform money transfers made via WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and even Instagram, which would expose it to more than $3 billion people per month. The plan is to have the FB Coin as a mean for people to send money to each other and also perform online purchases.
Catalini is known for its work in the research department when it comes to token economics. He has authored some influential papers, including a 2018 report on the value of crypto tokens.
By Andres Chavez
