The social media giant appears to have multiple currency-related irons in the fire
Social media behemoth Meta is reportedly considering rolling out a digital currency, the Financial Times revealed on Wednesday, years after the company’s initial efforts to create a cryptocurrency called Libra ran around on a combination of stifling regulations and user distrust.
Despite the collapse of its planned cryptocurrency Diem – formerly known as Libra – Meta has not given up on its plans to muscle into the financial services sector, with internal sources suggesting the company has plans to roll out a whole suite of virtual coins, tokens, and even business lending services.
Subsidiary Meta Financial Technologies is said to be “exploring the creation of a virtual currency for the metaverse,” something employees have begun referring to as “Zuck Bucks,” company sources told FT. But rather than previous efforts to enter the cryptocurrency world, Meta employees are reportedly seeking out the least-regulated form of digital currency, FT’s sources revealed, indicating it was giving the blockchain a wide berth.
Rather than debuting ‘Zuck Bucks’ as a blockchain-based crypto, the company will likely begin with in-app tokens it can totally control, perhaps building on its existing non-blockchain peer-to-peer payment system Facebook Pay, the sources indicated. Stephane Kasriel, the head of the finance division for Meta, wrote in a January memo that the company was working on “accelerat[ing]” investments in facilitating payments within its encrypted messenger subsidiaries WhatsApp and Messenger, “helping creators monetize their activity” via NFTs and other means, and potentially merging Facebook Pay with Novi, another wallet app which was initially developed to hold Meta’s Libra/Diem coin before that project collapsed.
Read More: Meta plans to create currency – media
