Social media has been responsible for the popularity of cryptocurrencies. Reddit, Facebook, and Twitter played a major role in the current state of cryptos. However, after regulations followed, Facebook and Google were forced to ban crypto ads in its platform.
But this time around, it seems that Facebook is quite interested in the blockchain. In May, the social media platform decided to have its own crypto division looking at the possibility of maximizing the possibilities of blockchain in payments. Recently, there was a report that Facebook’s blockchain research group met with Stellar.
According to unnamed sources, Facebook and Stellar are looking to discuss to the same as what the chat app Kik did when it created an independent blockchain for Kin cryptocurrency. Based on reports, Facebook is looking to piggyback on the main Stellar network.
There is also a report saying that Facebook is now rapidly expanding the blockchain division. The new division within Facebook was even described as a “startup within Facebook, with a vision to make blockchain technology work at Facebook scale and improve the lives of billions of people around the world”.
Facebook’s Denial About Stellar
Facebook denied the reports that the social media giant is meeting with Stellar. According to Facebook’s spokesman, Facebook is “not engaged in any discussion with Stellar, and we are not considering building on their technology”.
Facebook’s Crypto Lead Moves Away from Coinbase
Another thing that even feeds rumors is that David Marcus who is Facebook vice president and the former head of its Messenger division decided to step down from the board of directors of Coinbase. Marcus left his post at Messenger in May to lead what is Facebook’s blockchain division. He is currently reporting directly to Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer.
Also, last month, Evan Cheng who works as Facebook’s director of engineering has moved to the blockchain team.
Even Mark Zuckerberg himself commented about the cryptocurrency. He mentioned that one of his personal challenges for the year is to learn about different technologies such as encryption and cryptocurrency.
What exactly does a new blockchain team mean for Facebook? This means that Facebook is looking to shake things up in the crypto industry even establishing three different divisions for this. This includes a “family of apps” group along with “central product services” and “new platform and infra”.
Facebook Banned Crypto Ads
One of the things that Facebook did that sent Bitcoin’s price to go down is to ban crypto-related ads within its platform. Their reason for such is that the company is looking to prevent ads for “financial products and services frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices”. However, not shortly after, Facebook was reported to be having plans to explore its own in-app cryptocurrency.
It is quite common to see mainstream companies build partnerships and explore the possibilities of cryptocurrencies today. In fact, Microsoft, ICE, and Starbucks are reported to be teaming up in order to come up with a new company Bakkt.
In fact, despite the recent bearish price of cryptos today, Pantera CEO Dan Morehead even mentioned that people should be taking a closer look at the upcoming crypto exchange Bakkt.
