Facebook, according to rumors, develops its own cryptocurrency for payments in WhatsApp

The Facebook social network is developing their own cryptocurrency, with which users will be able to make money transfers through the company HatsApp messenger. This was written by Bloomberg with reference to sources familiar with Facebook plans.

It is reported that the future cryptocurrency will be primarily focused on the Indian market, where the number of WhatsApp users exceeds 200 million people. In addition, labor migrants actively transfer money to India: in 2017, the volume of such transfers amounted to $ 69 billion.

According to sources, Facebook develops a cryptocurrency related to the so -called stablecoins - digital currencies tied to real in order to avoid jumps in the course, from which the owners of popular cryptocurrencies suffer. In the case of Facebook, we are talking about binding to the US dollar, but at present the company is far from the launch of the project, which is at the stage of developing a strategy that includes plans for storing assets or ordinary currency (they will have to be used to maintain cryptocurrency price).

Bloomberg notes that many experts have long expected a similar step from Facebook. So, back in 2014, the social network hired the former president of the PayPal payment service David Marcus to launch his own messenger. In May of this year, Marcus headed the Facebook unit, engaged in initiatives related to blockchain technology. Details about the projects of this team have not yet been disclosed, but it is known that now it has about 40 people.

Note that the TELGRAM messenger is engaged in the creation of its own blockchain platform of the TON and the GRAM cryptocurrency. In October, it was reported that the company expects to launch the platform before the end of autumn, but this did not happen. Earlier, the Pavel Durov messenger attracted $ 1.7 billion from investors during the two rounds of ICO.