Facebook has set up a blockchain team that will operate from its Tel Aviv development center and the social media company is hiring a product manager for the blockchain sector. Facebook has advertised the post on Facebook itself and on LinkedIn.
According to the ad, the company is "Setting up a new team with the aim of discovering new ways to leverage blockchain technology. This is a small team that is quickly growing. The blockchain team is a startup within Facebook."
There have been reports over the past few days that Facebook plans issuing its own cryptocurrency over the next year that will allow users to send money to their contacts via Whatsapp. "The New York Times" reported that Facebook has had talks with the cryptocurrency exchanges about selling the currency to consumers.
Facebook has over 50 engineers working on the secret project in separate offices from other Facebook employees in order to protect secrecy. In December "Bloomberg" reported that the value of the cryptocurrency would be linked the value of the dollar in order to reduce volatility, while the "New York Times" said it would be linked to several major currencies and not just the dollar. It added than an integration of Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram would enable increasing the number of users able to use the cryptocurrency.
Facebook also recently launched a division for initiatives in the blockchain sector and cryptocurrency based technologies and appointed David Marcus, a former president of PayPal to head the division.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on March 5, 2019
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