Facecoin

#facecoin
Facebook’s Secret Cryptocurrency Led by PayPal Alumni Just ‘Months Away’ from India Launch.

Facebook’s much-hyped cryptocurrency project, dubbed Project Libra, may launch in India within a matter of months, according to a Bloomberg report. The secretive blockchain project, led by a team of PayPal alumni, is expected to launch a stablecoin for sending peer-to-peer payments to friends and family as well as integrating with major e-commerce players.

Famed investor Mike Novogratz this week called Facebook’s looming service “stunningly important” to the crypto space. If executed correctly, he said, Facebook’s payment service will be a “big, big deal” and lend credibility to cryptocurrencies.

If Facebook launches the stablecoin they are reportedly building, it will quickly become the most used product in crypto.

WhatsApp has over 200,000,000 users in India alone.

The Indian government has been fighting crypto too so things are about to get very, very interesting…

FACEBOOK CRYPTOCURRENCY: LAUNCHING IN INDIA?

Facebook hinted at its plans to launch in India back in December. Early reports suggest Zuckerberg’s cryptocurrency will facilitate overseas remittance payments for Indian WhatsApp users. The cryptocurrency is expected to be a “stablecoin” pegged to the value of local currency.

Facebook Secretly Talking with Bitcoin Exchanges about Listing its WhatsApp Cryptocurrency ..

Facebook has since used India as a testing ground with the beta-launch of WhatsApp Pay in the region.

Some of India’s 200 million WhatsApp users can now activate a “payments” option, send peer-to-peer payments, and link up their bank accounts. Although we should point out this service does not yet tap blockchain technology.

Facebook’s WhatsApp is reportedly testing waters for its payment service WhatsApp Pay in India. Stakes are high as it is up against the mighty opposition of Paytm, which is backed by #China’s Alibaba.

FACEBOOK IS “STUNNINGLY IMPORTANT” TO CRYPTO INDUSTRY

Billionaire investor and head of crypto merchant bank Mike Novogratz this week called Facebook’s plans “stunningly important.”

“I think it’s a stunningly important thing. I think it’s a good thing for the entire space… You’ve got one of the largest companies in the world saying ‘we believe in cryptocurrency’”

Novogratz said that Facebook presence in the space will give the ecosystem a new level of credibility. He claims it will give institutional investors the confidence to get off the sidelines and invest in digital assets.

“It’s not going to be small. To me it’s a step function of credentialization and credibility.”

Although he pointed out that Facebook’s impact relies on adopting a decentralized model, rather than a centralized payments service.

DOUBLE OR TRIPLE THE CRYPTO USER BASE?

Novogratz’s comments were echoed by Blockchain Capital’s Spencer Bogart. As CCN reported this week, Bogart believes Facebook’s crypto plans will double or triple the number of people using digital assets.

“Once they own [Facebook Coin], it will be like being on the internet so people can spin-out and start owning bitcoin, ethereum […] But the most important thing is that it is going to lit the fire in the pants of every major fintech and financial institution in the US.”

PEER-TO-PEER PAYMENTS?

Zuckerberg said at this month’s developer conference that sending payments should be as easy as sending a photo. It’s the strongest hint yet that Facebook is going all-in on peer-to-peer payments:

“I believe that it should be as easy to send money to someone as it is to send a photo.”

The sheer volume of former PayPal employees working on the Facebook Coin project should also give a strong clue about the future trajectory. Not only is the project led by former PayPal president David Marcus, but a fifth of facebook’s blockchain team are PayPal alumni.

The payment project is expanding rapidly, with Facebook also hiring 100 new employees for its London base, the hub of fintech innovation.

#FaceCoin: Here’s What Facebook Could Build In Blockchain And Cryptocurrency

We look at major events, patents, and news mentions to determine what Facebook may be up to in blockchain and digital currency.

“Facecoin” might not lay the company’s many controversies to rest, it could potentially address everything from centralized single sign-on to cheaper payments processing. A variety of different signals point to Facebook getting serious about blockchain and digital currency.

Major events include:

November 2017 — Early publicity about Russian election interference using Facebook
Jan 2018 — Zuckerberg’s personal goal for “Fixing Facebook” mentions experimenting with cryptocurrency and encryption
March 2018 — NYT and the Guardian publish coverage on the Cambridge Analytica scandal, working with Christopher Wylie
May 2018 — Facebook announces its largest reorganization ever, creating the blockchain group run by former Messenger boss (and ex-PayPal president) David Marcus, while also moving Instagram VP of Product Kevin Weil to the project
June 2018 — Facebook reverses ban on cryptocurrency ads
August 2018 — David Marcus steps down from the Coinbase board, citing a conflict of interest
December 2018 — Bloomberg reports that Facebook is developing a stablecoin, or a cryptocurrency pegged to a basket of currencies, for transfers within its WhatsApp service
March 2019 — Facebook acqui-hires Chainspace, which focused on smart contracts and payments, in its first blockchain acquisition
April 2019 — Sources say Facebook is meeting with VCs to raise as much as $1B for its cryptocurrency initiative, which could help present the project as more decentralized

What FB could build with blockchain and digital assets

As Facebook looks to redefine itself and expand its offerings, blockchain could be a significant lever to pull. Among many possibilities, tech commentators have theorized Facebook could build:

Coin incentives for e-commerce
Micropayments for services and content creators
Banking apps
Exchanges (competing with the likes of Coinbase)
Identity tech
Firstly, Facebook’s massive scale gives it a serious advantage in coin distribution.

Patents show Facebook’s longstanding interest in cryptocurrency

Facebook has been pursuing IP related to digital currency as far back as 2007, when it applied for a patent that allowed “giving gifts via a social network and displaying icons representing assets … the assets include real assets, digital assets, and virtual assets.”

Of course, that 2007 patent predates even the dawn of the first blockchain protocol, Bitcoin. But Facebook has a long track record of envisioning tech related to digital assets.

A. Antonopoulos on #Facecoin: #Facebook can't compete with #crypto

Famed #Bitcoin influencer and author of Mastering Bitcoin, Andreas Antonopoulos, spoke on Facebook's imminent foray into #cryptocurrency and his thoughts on the implications of Facebook coin and what it could mean for the industry…

The highly maligned Facebook crypto venture mostly divides the crypto community, with one halve suggesting that Facebook can help propagate cryptocurrencies, and the other believing that the firm could end up being highly detrimental to the industry.

Antonopoulos fits, for the most part, into the latter halve, explaining on his YouTube channel during a Q&A several reasons as to why Facebook coin is essentially a soulless cash grab which looks to do more harm than good.

The influencer believes that Facebook coin would be little more than an alternative to Paypal as it would still have to comply with banking regulations, as well as Know your customer (KYC) policies:

“Facebook will not produce a coin that is censorship resistant, open, decentralized, neutral, or borderless. It will not be similar to any cryptocurrency. They will recreate the world of digital dollars, just like PayPal and Venmo, etc. … They will be competing against other banks.”

Antonopoulos also relayed that in his opinion, corporate cryptocurrencies such as Facebook Coin and JPM Coin can’t, and won’t compete against cryptocurrencies:

“The differentiator for #cryptocurrencies is freedom. Open, neutral, #decentralized, borderless, and censorship-resistant money for the entire world, without discrimination, identification, or control. None of those features can be offered by these coins.”

Due to these reasons, the influencer believes that Facebook coin won't actually help anyone, certainly not those under authoritarian regimes or within economic crises:

“Guess what? About 90% percent of the human population lives under [or close to] those conditions. For them, ‘#FaceCoin’ isn’t a solution. It is simply another broken, centralized currency. Open systems are the solution; the problem is caused by centralization of control. That problem cannot and will never be solved by ‘FaceCoin.'”

Antonopoulos relay’s that much of the issues plaguing Facebook, such as privacy and the firm's nonchalant attitude towards user data and the sale of such, will be transmitted into their crypto venture as well:

“They will apply surveillance to all of your transactions, selling that data to hundreds of various… commercial companies and intelligence agencies, totalitarian regimes and [entities] like that. Facebook will sell the financial [data] of dissidents to the dictators hunting them down and get people killed. Because that is how fiat works.”

Kik’s CEO Thinks #Facebook Is Out To Replace Dollar With #Facecoin

Ted Livingston, the CEO of a messaging platform, Kik, is of the view that Facebook’s Facecoin stablecoin is out to replace the U.S dollar. The CEO is known for reliable predictions in the cryptocurrency arena.

According to Livingston, Facebook is not anchoring its crypto plans on unstable reasons. The social media platform is continuing its push to ‘help the world.’ Specifically, reducing the friction experienced when people are sending money abroad – to friends and family.

Facebook Is Emulating WeChat

Livingston has conspicuously shared his thoughts concerning Facebook’s stablecoin, Facecoin, in a medium post. Although Facebook has been mean with details regarding Facecoin, Kik’s CEO was able to read between the lines and unearth what Facebook has in store.

The CEO notes that Facebook is keen on emulating WeChat, a leading messaging and payment application in China. Like WeChat, Livingston notes, Facebook wants to privatize the U.S dollar to facilitate cheap transactions and in the process encourage people to trust Facebook with their money.

For example, WeChat, Livingston observes:

“Allowed people to take their money out at any time, but they also added more and more reasons for people to keep their money inside: paying hydro bills, buying food, booking vacations and more. Soon, no one was taking their money out.”

Kik’s CEO added that while hundreds of dollars are sent abroad to family and friends, the process is complicated, expensive and slow. “If Facebook could offer people a way to send money home for free, it would be a game changer for tens of millions”

But Facebook’s approach is different from WeChat’s:

“Instead of working with regulators like WeChat did in China, Facebook can roll out a global financial system without needing to go through the time-intensive process of working with banking regulators country by country. Keeping track of the money will be done through the blockchain allowing Facebook to permit payments in their apps without needing to become a bank.”

To benefit from it, Livingston notes, Facebook will find a way to make people spend money through the application e.g sending money, paying bills, etc.

“New ways of spending money through the app will become simpler and more powerful than the previous alternatives. Soon, there will be no reason for anyone to take their money out.”