There’s been moves made to bolster the Facebook Blockchain Division – did you catch it? Facebook has hired 40 ex-PayPal members to work for them. As the dominant social media company in the world, Facebook is intensifying its efforts to start its foray into the world of crypto and blockchain technologies. They’re attempting to do this to expand its ever-expanding business model. Do you think that the Facebook Blockchain Division will be successful?
From Cheddar, a tech news portal, Facebook has been quietly but intensely focusing on R&D related to blockchain technologies. A token, or cryptocurrency, from Facebook is not out of the question.
In May, Facebook created a Blockchain Development Department with David Marcus as its head. At the time, Marcus had commented that he wanted to start with a small group of people and explore the possibilities of blockchain and cryptocurrencies without a specific goal or type in mind.
“I’m setting up a small group to explore how to best leverage Blockchain across Facebook, starting from scratch … However, it seems that the potential offered by blockchain technologies is greater than what the Facebook team expected, and since that time, more than 40 new members have joined the division among which stands out an important group of “former PayPal execs.”
According to Web 2.0, the use of blockchain tech could be used to leverage data from the economy or transmission of data. “[Facebook’s] ultimate goal is to help billions of people with access to things they don’t have now, which could be things like equitable financial services, new ways to save, or new ways to share information.”
Facebook has kept the research and the group’s work tightly sealed. When asked about Mark Zuckerberg’s expectations of this department, not much was given, other than a brief comment: “Like many other companies, Facebook is exploring ways to leverage the power of blockchain technology. This new small team is exploring many different applications. We don’t have anything further to share.”
Hiring people with experience in both tech and financial businesses is something we should keep in mind. It’s not exactly sure what Facebook plans on doing with its blockchain division, but according to John Njui, Facebook’s exploration into a proprietary token would be very helpful to Facebook in many different ways. He wrote in an anaysis: “With over 2 Billion active monthly users, Facebook cannot ignore the fact that such a user base can use a native cryptocurrency for the following purposes: Pay for subscriptions, Ads, CPU usage, Tipping, expanding its marketplace, a crypto wallet, and micropayments”.
We know that financial institutions and Bakkt will be coming into the marketplace soon – but it’s also important to look past short term financial moves and look towards adoption and utility. Do you think Facebook adopting crypto will be a successful avenue for mass adoption? Let us know on our Facebook page!
