Facebook recently set up a company in Switzerland to focus on its stablecoin and blockchain-based payment system. Read on to know more about it…
According to a recent report, Facebook wants to be part of the exciting world of digital currency and it has reportedly started working on its virtual money project in Switzerland.
According to a Swiss news site Handelszeitung, Facebook has set up a company called Libra Networks in Geneva that will help CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg to build the cryptocurrency.
Libra Networks is registered in Geneva and the Crypto Valley located in Zug is also near by. As of last year, Switzerland has adopted a friendly approach towards crypto, ICOs and cryptocurrency startups.
Secret Project
As per the news report, Facebook has launched Libra Networks to produce the payments system on DLT which was announced earlier. Right from the start, Facebook has been very secretive about its cryptocurrency project. The secretive project of Facebook is already known under the title Libra Project. Libra Networks is owned by Facebook Global Holdings II in Ireland and will focus on developing the hardware and software for digital currency-related functions including payments, financing, identity management, big data, analytics, and blockchain.
Facebook has also hired two cryptocurrency compliance experts who formerly worked at the major crypto exchange Coinbase as reported by Cointelegraph in May. As reported by Ethereum World News previously, Facebook is in negotiations with a great number of large VC firms in order to raise $1 bln to back its cryptocurrency.
Facebook with around 2.4 Billion monthly active users and with current evaluation at $529 Billion, is in talks with all major payment networks like Visa, Master Card and more and is looking to raise around $1 Billion for the project.
FB Coin
Previously, Ethereum World News reported that many of US citizens are willing to invest in ‘Facebook Coin’, rather than Bitcoin, and use it on the social media platform and other platforms owned by Facebook, such as, WhatsApp and Instagram. LendEDU conducted a survey on a thousand adult US citizens, eager to study their trust to the crypto area and the previously announced ‘FB Coin’ in particular.
The report shows that just 7% of respondents have ever invested in crypto, e.g., Bitcoin, XRP, Ethereum. However, 18 percent are looking forward to buying ‘Facebook Coin’ as soon as it is launched and open for usage.
Anonymous sources have claimed that Facebook could release a native stablecoin some time in the third quarter of 2019. Seemingly, the users would be able to spend the coin on the website or on Whatsapp as a method of payment. Facebook is also looking to back up its crypto coin with the Dollar reserve.
Open Letter
‘Facebook Coin’ has also provoked certain concerns of US authorities, who have recently published an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg, demanding that Facebook discloses more details about the Libra Project.
They wrote:
“The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Facebook is recruiting dozens of financial firms and online merchants to help launch a cryptocurrency-based payments system using its social network. Last year, Facebook asked U.S. banks to share detailed financial information about consumers. In addition, privacy experts have raised questions about Facebook’s extensive data collection practices and whether any of the data collected by Facebook is being used for purposes that do or should subject Facebook to the Fair Credit Reporting Act.”
