‘Facebook Coin’ is being shopped to crypto exchanges

As we reported last year, Facebook is hoping to succeed where others have failed by introducing mainstream consumers to the world of digital coins.

And now The New York Times says that the social media giant is working on a ‘Facebook Coin’, pegged to the value of traditional currencies, that users of WhatsApp, which Facebook owns, could send to friends and family instantly. The project is far enough along that the company has held conversations with cryptocurrency exchanges about selling it to consumers, said four anonymous people briefed on the negotiations.

More than 50 engineers are working on the project, three people familiar with the effort said. The team is in an office with separate key-card access so other Facebook employees cannot get in, it is claimed.

“Facebook is looking at pegging the value of its coin to a basket of different foreign currencies, rather than just the dollar, three people briefed on the plans said. Facebook could guarantee the value of the coin by backing every coin with a set number of dollars, euros and other national currencies held in Facebook bank accounts,” The New York Times reports.

The company is overhauling its messaging infrastructure, which would connect Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram. The move would extend the reach of its digital currency across the 2.7 billion people who use one of the three apps each month.