Cryptocurrency for payments in WhatsApp may arrive in the first half of this year

Facebook would like to release a cryptocoin in the first half of this year that can be used for mutual payments in WhatsApp. It would be a stablecoin, the value of which is linked to various traditional coins.

Five anonymous sources familiar with Facebook’s plans provide information about the project to The New York Times. A team of fifty people are said to be working on the project by now, in an office that other Facebook employees can’t enter. Facebook’s project is said to be at an advanced stage and the social network is said to be hoping to release something in the first half of this year in talks with cryptocurrency exchanges.

Facebook would like to link the value of the cryptocoin to various traditional coins. This ensures a stable value and therefore the cryptocurrency is not interesting to speculate with. Consumers can buy the virtual currency without worrying about large fluctuations in value.

There have been rumors for some time about the arrival of a cryptocoin for mutual payments in WhatsApp. Bloomberg reported on this in December, stating that the introduction was still a long way off. David Marcus, formerly president of PayPal, leads the team. He is said to have persuaded several former colleagues at PayPal to switch to the Facebook team. Facebook has several job openings online that are linked to the project, notes Crypto website The Block.

It is not yet clear exactly how Facebook wants the cryptocoin to work. The virtual currency should probably make it easy for users worldwide to make mutual payments. The question is to what extent the social network itself wants to exercise control over this.

The New York Times notes that not only Facebook is working on its own cryptocoin. Telegram and Signal also do this, as do Japan’s Kakao and Line, which is popular in Asia.