Nathaniel Popper, the author of one of the most popular books on Bitcoin- Digital Gold, has revealed via a Twitter post that Facebook is making plans to get investments from capital firms towards the development its own cryptocurrency.
According to the “sources” who fed Popper the information, the management of Facebook might be seeking investments up to the tune of 1 billion US Dollars. The New York Times reporter and Harvard graduate argued that one of the major attraction of blockchain projects is its decentralization. As a result, Popper believes that the public sourcing for funds would bring trust to the cryptocurrency, making it more decentralized and less controlled by Facebook.
Collateral or Actual Investment?
Popper added that his sources mentioned Facebook could be using the money they get as collateral for its cryptocurrency.
Addressing how the social media giant plans to develop its cryptocurrency, he claims that Facebook is looking towards developing a coin which would have a stable value and they intend achieving this by pegging this to a number of foreign currencies being held in bank accounts.
Popper found it interesting that one of the wealthiest companies on earth was raising money since it has been ages since they did outside fundraising.
According to insiders, Facebook might consider listing its stablecoin on major exchanges for digital assets once they introduce the cryptocurrency. Although the exact launch date has not been announced, Facebook hints that it will be sometime within the first half of the year.
Over 180 billion US Dollars in Total Assets and Equity
With over 100 billion US Dollars in total assets and 84 billion US Dollars in equity, it is evident that the company does not really need to raise funds for the development of its cryptocurrency. However, this move is to make the project look more decentralized and less under the control of Facebook itself.
Bloomberg reported in December 2018 that the company was looking to release its stablecoin to make online money transfers much faster and efficient. They planned to integrate this cryptocurrency with the popular messaging app, Whatsapp – also owned by them.
The CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg on January 4th, 2018 posted a status on his Facebook which stated the debate concerning centralization and decentralization coupled with the benefits of decentralization which is putting power in the hands of the people.
He added the beliefs of most people in the 1900s and 2000s which was the decentralization of technology and the seemingly dwindling faith in such beliefs displayed in recent times. With the advent of big tech companies and the fact that the government keeps watch over people, a lot of people tend to believe that technology makes power centralized instead of decentralizing it.
Encryption and cryptocurrency, however, have come to change that and return power to the people due to the risk and technicalities they possess. Zuckerberg stressed his plan to study the benefits and downsides to these features and how to make the best out of them while working on his personal improvement and team development.
Read more at: https://www.btcnn.com/news/nathaniel-popper-facebook-seeking-1-billion-fund-for-its-cryptocurrency/
