Post by account_disabled on Mar 13, 2024 23:55:25 GMT -5
Facebook has enlisted some high-profile companies to back its next cryptocurrency. Uber, Stripe, Visa and Booking.com are among the companies supporting the secret project, according to new information. The Silicon Valley tech giant is expected to formally announce what it has been building next week. Discover more stories on Business Insider . It sounds as if Facebook has persuaded a number of heavyweights to get involved in its secret blockchain technology project. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Silicon Valley tech giant has recruited several high-profile companies - including Uber, MasterCard, Stripe, Visa and Booking.
For the past year or so, a team of Facebook employees has been working on applications for blockchain, the technology that underpins bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, to figure out how Facebook SW Business Directory could use it. According to multiple reports, the company has been creating its own cryptocurrency and intends to officially announce it next week. Read more: The revolt on Facebook gets bloody: independent investors vote en masse to oust Zuckerberg as president Uber, Stripe and the others are investing $10 million each to support a separate organization that will help operate the new cryptocurrency, which has been dubbed Project Libra (the companies named in The Wall Street Journal story have not responded.
Immediately to Business Insider 's request for comment ). A separate story from The Information from last week said that Facebook hopes to recruit up to 100 organizations to act as "nodes" on the network, which will limit any one organization's control over the cryptocurrency (including Facebook). Read more: Zuckerberg launches veiled attack on Apple after Facebook's privacy reorientation The Facebook blockchain project is being headed by David Marcus , who previously led the Facebook Messenger business. The move into cryptocurrencies is seen as a key element of Facebook's new focus on privacy , a top-down overhaul of the social network that CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said will resolve many of the criticisms around privacy and misinformation.