It has just come to common knowledge that Facebook is about to announce its own cryptocurrency. Tech news outlet, The Information, was the first to come out with this strange news. In their report, they even cited people that were claimed to have been “briefed” about this plan. But before we discuss this further, let’s talk about cryptocurrency first.
Over the past year, we have experienced, what I’d like to call, the rise and the fall of the cryptocurrency. The most popular one, called Bitcoin, peaked over $15,000. However, this did not stay like that for long. Crypto went down and now one Bitcoin is worth less than $8000. This dramatic decline has pushed many away from the crypto industry. It just happens so that Facebook wasn’t one of them.
The name of Facebook’s new cryptocurrency will be GlobalCoin. According to The Information, this is expected to serve as a “borderless currency” in countries where their local currencies aren’t stable enough. The GlobalCoin will also be pegged to the US dollar to avoid a fate similar to that of the Bitcoin. It is also expected to be used as a payment took on Facebook’s subsidiary apps, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram.
Other than that, it is also rumored that Facebook employees will get their salaries in the new currency. Machines, similar to ATMs, will be installed for the general public. This will allow people to buy digital tokens. Now, Facebook may be a social media giant but this does seem like a bold move for a company to make alone.
Fortunately, people over at Facebook thought of that and thus the company going to allow third-party firms to run a node for the GlobalCoin network. Facebook will charge each firm $10 million for a node and, in turn, will allow them to have a representation in the independent foundation.
Facebook’s sudden interest in a seemingly declining market will definitely have an effect over the values of the existing cryptocurrencies. According to Forbes, a capitalist said that this turn of events has “lit a fire in the pants of every major [financial technology] and financial institution”. And to be honest, I really don’t disagree with him.
What will be the fate of the crypto world is something we’ll have to wait and see for ourselves. It is an unpredictable market and the situation can go either way. As of now, Facebook has yet to make an official announcement regarding these plans. Till then, the best we can do is anticipate and, if you’re really into taking risks, invest.