Cryptocurrency may be earning censure from regulators from around the world, but that isn’t stopping various companies from around the world from jumping on the bandwagon. It is now the turn of Facebook to turn to the emerging technology, with the company reportedly confirming to The Verge that it is “exploring ways to leverage the power of blockchain technology”.
“Like many other companies Facebook is exploring ways to leverage the power of blockchain technology. This new small team will be exploring many different applications. We don’t have anything further to share”
An earlier report from Cheddar claimed that the company is exploring its own digital token. The report also stated that people ‘familiar with Facebook’s plans’ believe that the social media giant is ‘very serious’ about launching its own cryptocurrency. Of course, Mark Zuckerberg also mentioned that he is looking at cryptocurrency as a viable option for future platforms, earlier this year.
The development comes just days after the company confirmed that it is carrying out a major organizational reshuffle and appointed former PayPal CEO, David Marcus, as the head of its dedicated blockchain unit. According to reports, the blockchain team will be a part of Facebook’s ‘New Platforms and Infrastructure’ division that will also deal with other emerging technologies, such as AI, AR and VR.
Facebook’s newfound fascination with blockchain is a change from only a year ago, when it reportedly had only one employee researching about the emerging technology and how it can be put to use by the social media giant. The company is believed to have started working on blockchain only last year, when a member of its corporate development team, Morgan Beller, began looking at how the technology can be put to use by the social platform.
Since then, Chedddar says, the team has increased to almost a dozen. Under Marcus, their brief is to “explore how to best leverage blockchain across Facebook, starting from scratch”.
