• New York Times recently published an article stating reports from anonymous sources that confirm facebook is working on its very own cryptocurrency
• The company plans on integrating this coin with their messaging applications like whatsapp and messenger
• The crypto is supposed to be a stable coin with paired currencies from three different nationalities

According to an article published in the New York Times on 28th of February, social media giant Facebook is working on developing a cryptocurrency that the company plans on integrating with three of their apps namely Whatsapp, Messenger and Instagram. These three applications can provide a user base of around 2.7 billion users who access these apps every month. A crypto base payments system working with a messaging system is something a lot of other messaging giants like Kakao from Korea, Line from Japan and Telegram from Russia are already working on.

Facebook joins the fray

According to reports the project was launched right after Telegram managed to close $1.7 billion in two private ICO rounds for its upcoming token and a blockchain platform called Telegram Open Network(TON). The project was  led by David Marcus, Ex-Paypal president. The company reportedly has employed more than 50 engineers to work on its very own cryptocurrency of the future. Reports mention that the company is trying really hard to keep things under the radar. As reported the company has even allotted a different office and the team has been given separate key-card access to keep details private from other employees.

Many sources report that the upcoming coin is going to be a stablecoin based on past meetings with the Menlo Park Company, and it is going to be fiat-pegged. The coin will be transferable via the company’s messaging app but more details about it’s functionality are yet to be disclosed.

Facebook reportedly has already been talking to various crypto exchanges.  The question however is how decentralized will this be and how far will the company go to resolve fundamental tradeoff between decentralization and accessibility that is troubling existing cryptocurrencies.

From crypto ad ban to developing their own currency

Facebook already has a history with cryptocurrency since it banned all ads related to cryptocurrencies last year. Unconfirmed reports of how Facebook plans to integrate their very own cryptocurrency to whatsapp had already surfaced last December, with sources back then suggesting the same thing that the coin would be a stable coin.

Existing cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum are not governed by any authorities and the users are solely responsible for the safety of their finances. Crypto once lost cannot be restored and neither can fraudulent transactions be reversed so we have to keep in mind that the existing crypto ecosystem is much more sophisticated than the average Facebook and  Whatsapp users can perceive. It is now a matter of time before we can actually find out what Facebook plans to do with its cryptocurrency.