Facebook’s Crypto May Be Historic Initiative
According to a note sent out to clients on Thursday, June 13, Mark Mahaney and Zachary Schwartzman, analysts at RBC Capital Markets, Facebook Inc.’s cryptocurrency initiative may be one of the company’s most important in its history, which could end up unlocking new engagement as well as revenue streams for the social media giant.
High Expectations
According to the two experts, there are extremely high expectations of the cryptocurrency being developed by the social media behemoth. They expect this digital asset to be used for commerce, payments, apps as well as gaming all across Facebook’s social media platforms, including the company’s messaging service WhatsApp and image-based platform Instagram.
The two analysts had previously predicted that Facebook would release the white paper of the new project – codenamed Libra – on June 18. This document would outline the protocols that would be fundamental to the new crypto project.
RBC said that it was planning to offer its customers an analysis of the highly-anticipated white paper when it was published, so that investors could understand the fundamental crypto-economics of the new Facebook token.
Rumors are that the new cryptocurrency will be a stablecoin and will be backed by multiple fiat currencies across the globe. Some think it will be called GlobalCoin, while other opine it will be called FacebookCoin.
The token has been in development for over 6 months. However, Facebook claims that it had been considering incorporating a cryptocurrency into its network as early as the last part of 2017. The company also states that it has a staff of about 100 employees working on project Libra, including two compliance managers who joined the company from the major cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase last month.
Another rumor doing the rounds is that Facebook has given its employees the option of taking their salaries in the new coin. There is no confirmation if the social media company, worth $514 billion, will offer any incentives in this cryptocurrency.
Criticism of the New Coin
Not everyone is so enamored of the upcoming Facebook Coin. Wyoming Blockchain Taskforce’s Caitlin Long stated that this launch would cause more people to turn to Bitcoin for one reason. BTC is rare, while the new Facebook coin is not.
Charlie Shrem, one of the most respected figures in crypto, stated that FacebookCoin was an attempt by the banks, credit card companies and big tech to attract people away from BTC by offering them a so-called better and easier crypto. However, he says that this new coin in reality is nothing more than a fiat coin that is being covered up as a cryptocurrency.