by John Smith The Facebook Coin is coming!
The first Facebook project based on blockchain technology could be a cryptocurrency to allow the transfer of money via messaging apps. Mark Zuckerberg also explores other use cases.
And if the most used cryptocurrency tomorrow was the Facebook Coin?
Mark Zuckeberg’s group projects in the Blockchain field have been a huge curiosity since he formalized in the spring of 2018, the creation of a division dedicated to this new technology, and the choice of David Marcus to direct it.
The latter is a former president of Paypal and former head of Facebook Messenger.
The latter had left in August 2018 the board of directors of the large coinbase cryptocurrency exchange platform to avoid any potential conflict of interest.
About 50 engineers are already assigned to this division, according to job postings published by Facebook by the specialized media The Block.
Already unveiled by Bloomberg last December 2018, the project to create a Facebook cryptocurrency is more accurate, thanks to several sources who spoke to the New York Times.
It would be precise enough for Facebook to have already approached cryptocurrency trading platforms to discuss it.
The purpose of this “Facebook Coin” would be to be used for payments and money transfers via WhatsApp and Messenger messaging.
Micro-payment tests in India.
Mark Zuckeberg insisted during the presentation of his results, January 30, 2018 on the importance of payment via messaging as a strategic focus of the development of its messaging services.
Without any blockchain technology, a test is already underway in India since February 2018 with a million Indians via Unified Payment Interface, a platform for paperless payment of the Indian banking sector.
This service should be generalized soon.
Other geographical areas such as Latin America will be certainly included. Dash and other cryptocurrencies are getting more and more popular in Venezuela, Argentina, etc…
The market for money transfer and payments via messaging is booming.
Developing countries are a particularly promising market because it is difficult for many people to open a traditional bank account and shop online.
Other countries like China are considerably ahead of the payment via messaging through WeChat.
According to the New York Times, the Facebook Coin will be pegged to the price of a basket of currencies and not subject to significant market volatility like Bitcoin.
Facebook would have the financial means to secure the value of a Facebook Coin with currency held in Facebook’s bank accounts.
The interest will be less for speculators, and strong for the general public in search of stability.
This is the goal for Facebook.
Questions about authentication.
Because Facebook can count on a potential target of millions of users.
Its messaging apps like WhatsApp (1.5 billion users), Messenger (1.3 billion) and Instagram (1 billion) already have millions of monthly active users.
Above all, the group is in the process of integrating the infrastructure of its three services, which theoretically opens the possibility of inter-service transfers, making the number of potential users in this new market even greater.
Several questions are of course unresolved:
How far would Facebook take responsibility for transactions and user identification?
Will it delegate some of its responsibility on a cryptocurrency exchange platform?
To what extent will his project run up against the regulatory issues that still hinder the growth of cryptocurrency?
Besides, the Facebook Coin would not be the only Facebook project with Blockchain technology.
In a long video interview with a Harvard professor, Mark Zuckerberg explains how to think about a use case around user authentication to provide a more secure alternative to Facebook Connect, a tool that allows users to connect on other sites through their Facebook account.
The idea is to allow the user to better control the data shared with third-party sites.
But, Mark Zuckerberg admits, it’s just an idea yet as, in addition to technical issues, switching to a distributed system also raises “philosophical” questions: “a fully distributed system empowers individuals, but it raises real issues” says Mark Zuckerberg.
And if there is a problem, he gives the example of the misuse of data made by Cambridge Analytica, “it is much easier to go after big companies like Facebook or Google than a series of third party applications.
Is a Facebook Coin or a FaceCoin a good thing for crypto?
Yes and no. Exposing a Facebook Coin to its millions of users, Facebook will lead many people to take an interest in cryptocurrency and therefore surely to look into Bitcoin.
The result could be that new people buy cryptocurrency and allow cryptocurrency to become increasingly popular with the general public.
The negative side is the centralized aspect of Facebook precisely and to have a Facebook token that would be controlled by Facebook, which is the opposite of what cryptocurrency, Bitcoin and the Blockchain technology is supposed to be: decentralized!
And we remember the problems related to the processing of Facebook user data by Facebook and external companies, etc…
If the Facebook Coin came to be a stable coin, this Facebook token could also outright replace the current stable coins like Tether USDT, Gemini Dollar, etc…
People would be more confident in a stable coin held by an economic and financial giant like Facebook than by a company like Bitfinex located in an offshore location or exotic country…
The Facebook Coin might replace the Dollar one day, who knows! 😉
All this takes time to develop, the Facebook Coin might be ready end of 2019, nobody knows.
Cryptocurrency is getting more and more popular, Facebook and its huge amount of users would certainly help to push crypto towards mainstream adoption.
Telegram is also supposed to launch its token in 2019 with its messaging app.
Telegram launched its ICO (initial offer in cryptocurrencies) in 2017, which had managed to raise $1.7 billion dollars to develop its blockchain platform known as the ‘Telegram Open Network’ (TON).
