After rumours emerged ?earlier this month, Facebook has finally announced its official plans to launch a cryptocurrency soon.
Called Libra, the social network will launch its initial coin offering (ICO) sometime next year, for use on its platform.
Reuters
The tech giant indicated that users would be able to use the currency through its apps, including Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Once launched, you'll be able to purchase Libra and store it in a new digital wallet from the company called Calibra. The website for Calibra was also launched earlier today.
"Over the coming months, the association and its members will be recruiting additional members to further diversify and support the network," the company statement read. "We will also be raising money in a private placement to help jumpstart the ecosystem and drive adoption."
At the moment though, Libra already has a list of heavy-hitting backers, including:
1) Payment avenues like Mastercard, PayPal, Stripe, and Visa.
2) E-commerce solutions and services like Booking Holdings, eBay, Lyft, Uber, and Spotify
3) Telecom services like Vodafone
4) Blockchain platforms like Coinbase and Xapo Holdings Limited
5) Venture Capital firms like Andreessen Horowitz, Breakthrough Initiatives, and more. And other non-profits as well.
"We will also continue engaging with regulators, policymakers, and experts to solicit feedback and ensure that this global financial infrastructure is governed in a way that is reflective of the people it serves. We believe this will be a significant undertaking - and responsibility - and we will continue to work openly and collaboratively as we move toward our goal of launching this new ecosystem in the first half of 2020," the statement read.
In case it wasn't already clear, the prime focus of this cryptocurrency will probably be to purchase items and services within Facebook's group of apps. Facebook already has a marketplace, and Instagram and Messenger let companies and individuals sell stuff directly to consumers, something that WhatsApp has also planned to adopt soon.
Whether this Libra cryptocurrency will make it to India though is a different matter. Aside from trading in its ilk being banned here across the world, a government committee is also debating outlawing blockchain-based currencies entirely, for fears it enables illegal transactions and frauds.