Facebook Is Building Its Own Digital Currency for WhatsApp
Facebook is reportedly working on building its own cryptocurrency for WhatsApp. Bloomberg reports that the company’s blockchain group is looking into building a new stablecoin for WhatsApp.
Stablecoin is a form of digital currency that’s pegged to the U.S. dollar, almost like a fixed exchange rate system. The stablecoin would allow for significantly less volatility compared to the likes of mainstream cryptocurrency like Bitcoin as it would be pegged to an actual, real-world currency.
Facebook plans to use the stablecoin to enable money transfer on WhatsApp, focusing first on the remittance market in India, where the app has more than 200 million users. The feature would allow users to transfer money with Facebook’s stablecoin.
The company is reportedly still in its early stages of developing the new stablecoin. In fact, it’s still working on the strategy for the project, with a Facebook spokesperson confirming that the company’s blockchain team is still exploring the different applications of cryptocurrency.
Facebook’s execution here will be the deciding factor for the future of its stablecoin. The company is at a point where the amount of privacy and security-related controversies that emerged in the last 12 months has put it in a position where everything it does will be faced with some sort of backlash. And even though this new stablecoin is far from being public, it will most likely present Facebook with a bunch of concerns from the industry.