Earlier this year, stating that blockchain reward tokens are often associated with deceptive or misleading promotional practices, Facebook announced that it will ban all advertising for cryptocurrencies. Recently, however, the CEO of the social network launched a blockchain division. In addition to this, there are a few reports of Facebook planning to create its own cryptocurrency as well.
Messenger and Instagram executives join Facebook’s blockchain team
In a statement to the Verge, Facebook said that it is exploring ways to leverage the power of blockchain technology, as other companies are doing. The social network commented that its new, small team will be exploring various applications, but it doesn’t have much to share on it yet.
The announcement of the new blockchain division came hand in hand with the news that the head of Messenger, David Marcus, left his role to set up the team to explore blockchain technology and ways to use it across the social media platform. Kevin Weil, who was head of product at the photo-sharing application, also left his job to join the blockchain division of Facebook. Adam Mosseri, who was heading Facebook News Feed, will now head Instagram.
Facebook launches its own blockchain division from scratch
The blockchain is a technology which supports cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Bitcoin. In addition, Blockchain technology has many other possible applications which could revolutionize the way governments and businesses function.
Marcus will work as a team leader of over 12 people dedicated to blockchain technology. Mike Schroepfer, Chief Technology Officer and Javier Olivan, VP of Growth will oversee the consolidated divisions like the services related to ‘new platforms and infrastructure’ and ‘ads system.’
Furthermore, according to a report by Cheddar, the social networking site is exploring the creation of its own artificial currency which would enable its billions of users worldwide to make electronic payments. Sources, who asked to remain anonymous, told Cheddar that the social media platform is very serious about its plans.
Marcus, who is also an early Bitcoin investor as well, was the President of PayPal before joining the social media giant. PayPal is a service that, among other things, facilitates transactions between users in the Messenger app of Facebook. Marcus also joined the board of Coinbase in December. Currently, Coinbase is running one of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges.
