Nathaniel Popper, the author of Digital Gold, one of the most popular books on Bitcoin (BTC), revealed via Twitter that Facebook is planning to get more venture capital firms to invest in the ongoing development of its cryptocurrency.
According to Popper’s “sources,” Facebook’s management might be seeking investments of around $1 billion. The Harvard University graduate and New York Times reporter argued that “one of the big allures of blockchain projects is the decentralization.” Given that, Popper believes “getting outside investors could help Facebook present the project as more decentralized and less controlled by Facebook.”
Using The Money As “Collateral” For Its Cryptocurrency?
Popper also noted that sources told him Facebook is “talking about using the money as collateral for its cryptocurrency.”
Going on to reveal how the social media giant may be developing its own cryptocurrency, Popper claims: “Facebook has been designing the coin to keep a stable value, pegged to a basket of foreign currencies held in bank accounts.”
He added:
It's interesting to think of one of the richest companies on earth raising money. When was the last time they did outside fundraising?
According to inside sources, Facebook might be considering listing its stablecoin on major digital asset exchanges after the cryptocurrency is introduced. Although the exact date for the launch has not been announced, the social media company is planning to release the cryptocurrency during the first half of 2019.
$100 Billion In Total Assets, $84 Billion In Equity
Although Facebook might not need to raise funds as the company has nearly $100 billion in total assets and equity worth around $84 billion, the firm’s management may be planning to work with outside investors in order to make its crypto project look “more decentralized and less controlled” by the company itself.
In December 2018, Bloomberg had reported that Facebook was preparing to introduce its own stablecoin in order to expedite online money transfers. The media company’s management had said that it was planning to integrate the cryptocurrency into WhatsApp Messenger, a widely-used messaging app with over 1 billion users worldwide.
On January 4th, 2018, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of the social media giant, had posted a new status on Facebook in which he noted: “One of the most interesting questions in technology right now is about centralization vs decentralization. A lot of us got into technology because we believe it can be a decentralizing force that puts more power in people’s hands. (The first four words of Facebook’s mission have always been “give people the power”.)”
He added:
Back in the 1990s and 2000s, most people believed technology would be a decentralizing force. But today, many people have lost faith in that promise. With the rise of a small number of big tech companies — and governments using technology to watch their citizens — many people now believe technology only centralizes power rather than decentralizes it. There are important counter-trends to this –like encryption and cryptocurrency — that take power from centralized systems and put it back into people's hands. But they come with the risk of being harder to control. I'm interested to go deeper and study the positive and negative aspects of these technologies, and how best to use them in our services. This will be a serious year of self-improvement and I'm looking forward to learning from working to fix our issues together.
