The Wall Street Journal reports that Facebook is indeed building a cryptocurrency for a new payments network, which puts to rest the many rumors that had the cryptocommunity sure that the social media giant had been planning a foray into the blockchain and cryptocurrency space.
Code named Project Libra, the report says that Facebook is building a stablecoin backed by fiat and that it was recruiting “dozens of financial firms and online merchants” to support the crypto ecosystem.
It was widely believed that Facebook was working on some crypto related initiative, after related job listings were discovered and sources close to the matter confirmed that it was happening. Remittances appears to be one target area for Facebook, and it has been discussed before that the company is targeting the remittance market in countries like India.
The new WSJ report has additional set of interesting details: previously it was reported that Facebook was looking to raise $1 billion from investors, which the report confirms. The money will go towards backing its stablecoin, it appears. The stablecoin also exists to avoid the fees associated with credit cards, as well avoid the volatility of non-stablecoins. Facebook may also link the token to its core ads engine, rewarding users for viewing advertisements.
It appears that Facebook – and the report states this – is looking to go just beyond the remittances market. The introduction of cryptocurrency into a platform like Facebook may herald a new phase for the market as Facebook, along with Instagram and WhatsApp, possesses a userbase of about 2.5 billion.
Morgan Creek co-founder, Anthony Pompliano, has said that Facebook would build the “most used product in crypto”, and certainly there are many who feel that the arrival of Facebook would help spur mass adoption.
It was earlier reported that the Facebook cryptocurrency was expected to launch in the first half of 2019.
Source link: investinblockchain.com
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