Facebook Reported To Have Over 100 Staff Working On Crypto Project

More details have emerged regarding high-level executives working on Facebook’s crypto project as per a report released by CNBC on June 6th.

As per the report, there are now more than 100 people working on the crypto project as per information from Linkedin. Facebook is rumoured to still be in the process of hiring staff with as many as 40 positions still available, in the teams business arm as per its listing on its website.

The core goal of Facebook’s future crypto project as per advertising on its staff descriptions is to provide a public service which is centred on accessibility:

“Our ultimate goal is to help billions of people with access to things they don’t have now — that could be things like healthcare, equitable financial services, or new ways to save or share information.”

David Marcus is the head of Facebook’s blockchain projects. In the past, Marcus has served on the board of Coinbase and until recently has also worked as Paypal’s president.

In addition to this, Eric Nakagawa, a Facebook dev, will serve as the new “head of open source.” In the past, Nakagawa has been the leader of open source initiatives at PyTorch artificial intelligence (AI) software. The veteran developer has also previously served as the CEO and founder of “I Can Has Cheezburger?”, a famous 2000’s online humour website.

According to recent press releases, Facebook has considered handing over control of its cryptocurrency governance to third-party entities in an effort to ensure that it is fully decentralized.

In addition to this, Facebook will reportedly unveil its secret crypto project to the public later this month at which point, the staff at the social media giant will have the option of receiving part of their salaries paid in the platform’s native cryptocurrency.

At Consensys 2019, an annual blockchain conference,  Olaf Carlson-Wee, CEO of Polychain Capital, stated that Facebook would benefit from building its upcoming stablecoin upon a public, open blockchain:

“I think given all the problems that Facebook has had with policing their platform and things like that, I think that the strategic move for Facebook would actually be to build public infrastructure. And that public infrastructure could be incorporated onto all the Facebook platforms, which of course are proprietary. But that public infrastructure, if they don’t try to own it, I think that’s where they will have the most success.”