Facebook Inc is currently working on developing a cryptocurrency that will allow their users to be able to transfer money using the WhatsApp Messaging app.
The App will first of all be concentrating on remittances in India. This information was provided by people who were familiar with the matter.
Facebook is developing a Stablecoin. This will be a digital currency that will be pegged to the USD. This is done to prevent volatility in the value of the stable coin in the remittance process. The source that provided the information has required to be anonymous for discussing internal plans.
Facebook will take some decent amount of time to release the coin; however, they are still in the process of strategizing. They are making plans for custody assets. They might also include regular currencies which will be held to protect the stable coin value.
It has long been expected for Facebook to be providing financial services. This expectation shot up when Facebook hired David Marcus, the president of PayPal to run the messenger App in 2014.
The blockchain initiatives of the company have not been discussed in detail so far. The employee titles on LinkedIn page confirmed the hiring spree of Facebook. Now, there are more than 40 listed in the blockchain group.
The company spokesman further remarked that “Like several other companies, Facebook will be exploring methods to leverage the power of the blockchain technology, and that the current small team is exploring several applications. We do not have anything more to share.”
WhatsApp, is a mobile-messaging app that is encrypted and very popular in India. There are more than 200 million users. India also leads the world when it comes to remittances as people send nearly $69 billion to their homes in India per 2017 records provided by the World Bank.
There has been a widespread boom of cryptocurrency projects based on the stable coins. There was a point when there were more than 120 ventures on this theme according to a website that has been actively tracking the stable tokens. This concept has been coined, to come up with a digital coin, that will be very easy to use for daily purchases, as a form of digital currency, that is stable than the Bitcoin.
It has not been easy to execute this task so far, as at least one of such high profile projects did shut down this week. Tether, one of the best high profile stable coin so far is also involved in a controversy. We are yet to witness what Facebook has got to give in this area with its 2.5 billion global users. Of note, they have been successfully navigating regulatory issues.
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