Saad Ullah
WhatsApp, Facebook and India
The report said that anonymous sources have confirmed that the social media giant will be using the dollar pegged currency initially in the Indian market to allow users transfer money through WhatsApp.
The chatting and communication application WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook in 2014 and currently has more than 200 million active users in Indiaalone. Tapping into the Indian market is a lucrative option. In 2017, Indians sent USD 69.59 billion back home in remittances.
Anthony Pompliano, a crypto analyst tweeted “If Facebook launches the stable coin they are reportedly building, it will quickly become the most used product in crypto,” and “The Indian government has been fighting crypto too so things are about to get very, very interesting.”
Blockchain Hiring
Facebook has recently set up a blockchain development team in May. Only a few days ago, it had posted 5 different openings for the blockchain team, ranging from data scientist to marketing. The job openings were very vague about the exact nature of the project the team members were being hired for. The latest report from Bloomberg clarifies the exact nature of the team. There may be other projects in line, but so far, this is the only news (although cited and not official) to come out of the social media giant.
David Marcus, a senior Facebook executive has been shifted from his previous role of Vice President Facebook Messenger division to the blockchain team where he heads it now. Even Cheng, a senior engineer in the media corporation was also shifted to the blockchain team this summer, acting in the capacity of blockchain engineer director.
With this, WhatsApp joins the increasing number of messaging applications that are turning towards developing their own cryptocurrencies. Kakao, LINE and Telegram already have publicly declared their intentions to have their own, with LINE’s LINK and its main net launched.
Saad Ullah
