The rumor mill has been hard at work churning out the latest news regarding Facebook. While it has openly admitted that it has created its own blockchain team, it has vehemently denied any talks or partnership with Stellar (XLM). This time around, the rumor mill said that Facebook had help high-level meetings with Stellar to discuss creating a Facebook fork, so that it can use Stellar’s technology as a foundation to create its own blockchain. However, Facebook came out in force denying these claims. Interestingly, at around the same time, David Marcus – former VP of Facebook Messenger – resigned from his board position at Coinbase. Only 8 months into his tenure, he cited conflict of interest as his reason for stepping down.
Facebook Warming up to Crypto
At the start of the year, Facebook led the charge against crypto by banning all crypto-related adverts on its platform. This caused massive rifts within the crypto community and it hit a number of genuine crypto firms quite hard. Facebook has one of the best advertising networks, and without this platform many crypto firms suffered an onboarding slump. However, towards the end of June, Facebook decided to backtrack and permit a handful of crypto-related adverts – namely Coinbase ads. This move once again had the rumor mill churning and the ideas of “Facebase” and “Coinbook” were thrown around. Yet, once again, these claims were quickly dismissed.
Alternative Blockchain Uses
While Facebook might not be publicly working on a crypto exchange, there is a plausible explanation and purpose behind its blockchain team. One theory is that it is working on a better ad network delivery system that uses blockchain technology to process payments and approve ads in a more time efficient manner. This could support claims that Facebook held meetings with Stellar, even if it was just for guidance rather than for a fork of its blockchain. Alternatively, it could be looking to use blockchain to make its users accounts more secure. This would work by giving each account its own private key, which then permits only that user to access that account and makes account hacking a lot more difficult.
Microsoft Using Blockchain for Royalty Remittance
Over at Microsoft, things look a little different. It is working on a blockchain system that will enable royalties from purchases made on the Xbox store to be remitted back to game developers within minutes. Currently the process takes around 30 working days and this long time is preventing game devs from creating Xbox exclusive titles. This new remittance system might be able to turn the tide in the battle for exclusive titles. Facebook could be working on a similar product and launching its own payment system through the messenger app – similarly to Gmail’s new payment feature.
While we don’t know the exact nature of Facebook’s blockchain team, we can certainly expect a game-changing product once it is completed. It could also be working on its own in-app cryptocurrency that can be used to pay friends, pay for ads, and used for Facebook games.
Stay tuned to BitStarz News for the latest developments with Facebook’s blockchain team, as we’ll be sure to bring you the latest updates as and when they happen!
