A report from Bloomberg states Facebook is making a cryptocurrency for money transfers in the WhatsApp messaging platform.
Specifically they are developing a “Stablecoin” which is a centralized cryptocurrency which aims to fix the issue of price volatility by pegging it’s value to another currency, such as the US dollar.
Facebook is one of many companies that are currently trying to utilize the potential of blockchain technology.
It’s no surprise WhatsApp is heading in this direction, as the head of WhatsApp is David Marcus, former president of Paypal and former member of the Coinbase Board of Directors. To avoid a perceived conflict of interest, he stepped down from the Coinbase Board of Directors in August.
He’s now Facebook’s new blockchain research lead. In a Facebook post, he states, “I’m setting up a small group to explore how to best leverage Blockchain across Facebook, starting from scratch.”