Facebook Increases Crypto Project Efforts, Plans to Make Announcement This Month

Social media giant, Facebook will officially announce its cryptocurrency project this month, per a report released by CNBC on June 5. Citing a report by The Information, CNBC revealed that Facebook will be open to sharing control of the cryptocurrency with third-party ‘nodes’, in a bid to decentralize the digital asset and ensure its safe, controlled spread. However, Facebook will charge up to $10 million for the privilege – which will allow these third-party organizations to validate transactions done with the stablecoin, according to The Information.

According to the report, Facebook is also planning to launch physical ATM-like machines that can dispense the currency, which has been dubbed Globalcoin, to users that purchase it. This would be similar to how users buy cryptocurrency with Bitcoin ATMs. In a giant stride to kick-start acceptance of the digital currency, employees working on the highly-speculated cryptocurrency will be allowed to take their salary in the form of the new currency.

The currency, which will be integrated across Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram platforms, will allow for ease of transactions and purchases for the platforms’ more than 2 billion users across borders. It would also help Facebook to diversify its revenue beyond advertising, which is currently their main source of revenue.

At a conference for developers earlier this year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that the company has always planned to make commerce and e-payments important focus areas.

“When I think about all the different ways that people interact privately, I think payments is one of the areas where we have an opportunity to make it a lot easier.”

The announcement of the cryptocurrency will be a final cap on all of Facebook’s efforts to launch their own stablecoin. From registering the Globalcoin under Facebook’s secret Project Libra, speaking with major cryptocurrency exchanges, to hiring former PayPal president David Marcus to head a team of blockchain specialists, the social media giant has surely been on a sure march to venture into the crypto verse for a while.

However, the social media company has been taking the heat for the ways that they use detailed user information for ad purposes, and doubts have been flying about the security of the stablecoin, after it is launched.

Crypto watchers are also looking to see if Facebook will scale through the anti-laundering directive of the EU, seeing as the stablecoin is slated to work without required KYC procedures.