Facebook is launching a new team dedicated to the blockchain.

[vit05]

recode

Facebook is launching a new team dedicated to the blockchain. Messenger’s David Marcus is going to run it.
What is the blockchain? Facebook wants to find out, too.

What is the blockchain? And how should Facebook be using it?

Finding answers to those questions is now the responsibility of David Marcus, the Facebook executive who has, until this week, been running the company’s standalone messaging app, Messenger.

Marcus is leaving Messenger to take over a new internal team dedicated to exploring blockchain technology, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. The team will be small at launch, fewer than a dozen people, but will include a few key Instagram executives who are moving over to join Marcus: Instagram’s VP of Engineering, James Everingham, and Instagram’s VP of Product, Kevin Weil.


The move is noteworthy for a couple of reasons:

As the former president of PayPal, Marcus has a lot of payments expertise and has been in charge of Messenger through a lot of significant changes over the years. In fact, Facebook’s decision to split Messenger out of the core app so that users had to download the standalone app in order to receive messages on mobile happened during Marcus’s first month on the job. He oversaw Messenger’s push into customer service bots, shopping and, more recently, advertising. His departure from that role is notable, especially since Messenger is just starting to ramp up its advertising business.
The blockchain, which serves as the technical foundation for all cryptocurrencies — like bitcoin — is all the rage. Facebook’s decision to pursue blockchain technology will most certainly add some validity to the crypto industry, which has been very chaotic. This doesn’t mean that Facebook will build its own cryptocurrency, but there are many ways that blockchain technology could be used that have nothing to do with cryptocurrencies, including encrypted data storage. Marcus does have a personal interest in cryptocurrencies, though. He joined the board of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase in December.
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In his new role, Marcus will report to Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer; Chudnovsky will report to Facebook Chief Product Officer Chris Cox. Both new roles are part of a much larger Facebook re-org that was announced internally this week; it is arguably the company’s biggest restructuring in history.

[Vaskiy]

Some good news has begun to roll out from different ventures, and Facebook developing its own blockchain makes the technology more popular. When the technology gains importance automatically the dependence will move towards the growth. So, can expect price pumping with bitcoin in the falling days.

[Herbert2020]

last year was the year of shitty ICOs created by scammers to make a lot of money. this year is the year of shitty centralized shitcoins created by these centralized platforms. in about a year or two we will see all of them (Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, PayPal, Visa,....) have their own shitcoin created based on bitcoin and the blockchain technology.
in about 3 to 5 years will see their failures and see them all burn and by then we will see a huge widely used bitcoin and possibly 1 or 2 real decentralized altcoins that focus on working as a better currency.

[hase0278]

last year was the year of shitty ICOs created by scammers to make a lot of money. this year is the year of shitty centralized shitcoins created by these centralized platforms. in about a year or two we will see all of them (Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, PayPal, Visa,....) have their own shitcoin created based on bitcoin and the blockchain technology.

Why categorize the coins they will create as shitcoin if we still haven't seen it yet? IMO, their coins must at least be useful enough to have real world use cases in their platform, so I believe they won't be the same kind when compared to a typical shitcoin. They would probably become centralized coins functioning with the use of blockchain, but they will always retain value because they can be used in real life(because of the platforms that will back it).

[Addywealth]

No doubt this is a good news. It will aid awareness of cryptocurrencies all over the world.

[NorrisK]

Looks like crypto is going to be everywhere soon. Best to just ride out the current bumps and waves and enjoy what is to come. The big boys are entering!

[CarltonWyatt]

I think facebook after the recent data handling scandal are realising they are becoming irrelevant. Its becoming fashionable to delete your facebook where I live in the UK. Its funny though because only now is my granny starting to use it!! It took our family years of persuading. I can see it becoming another wing of the dinosaur media in more ways than one.

[Pursuer]

do I smell ICO? I think I do... it is a lot of money. millions raised by some much shittier ICOs so why not Facebook? they haven't been blind to it all, they know what is going on and they want a piece of it for themselves.

but I agree that it is all going to be good for bitcoin at the end. all of these hypes are actually introducing people to the original, better, decentralized thing which started it all and is still the strongest: bitcoin.
it is like Venezuela. they created El Petro with a big ICO and started hyping it up and teaching people about blockchain technology. in the end the amount of money invested in bitcoin increased 200% in Venezuela!

[JohnnyLVC]

Looks like crypto is going to be everywhere soon. Best to just ride out the current bumps and waves and enjoy what is to come. The big boys are entering!

Exactly you should have to be patience and trust in big boys technology.

[elygil2022]

No better flatform for cryptocurrency awareness than Facebook. With billions of users, bitcoins would easily become a byword among social media addicts.

[ismelda_ita]

this is very good news, I think if Facebook uses blockchain technology in it, then the crypto world will be more popular and bitcoin, ethereum and another crypto price will rise in price.

[amishmanish]

--snip--
in about a year or two we will see all of them (Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, PayPal, Visa,....) have their own shitcoin created based on bitcoin and the blockchain technology.
in about 3 to 5 years will see their failures and see them all burn and by then we will see a huge widely used bitcoin and possibly 1 or 2 real decentralized altcoins that focus on working as a better currency.

As much as we would like these centralized, private blockchains to crash and burn, the threat posed by them shouldn't be underestimated. People who came to know about bitcoin before the 2016-17 explosion did care about the decentralized aspects of crypto. Those who came in after the mid-2017 explosion hardly care for the difference between a pre-mined, centralized token like Ripple and Bitcoin.

Imagine the excitement and sheep mentality of these people once established companies like facebook start offering these private blockchain cryptos. Media would be fawning over it like anything. The one possibility is that maybe the governments and banking institutions themselves would view this as a bigger threat. (Major technological corporations jumping into the game of creating and controlling money supply).

[DAVETUN]

Great good news, the cryptocurrency word kept evolving, sure other social media platform will follow suit, when Facebook get involve, ultimately government  will have no choice than to embrace the blockchain technology.

[bering]

facebook will explore blockchain technology and this is sound pretty good for me and i don't know this is related or not but if they will use blockchain technology for encrypted data storage which mean they concern to their latest scandal and want to fix their reputation but in my view if this is happened i think eventually they will lauch ICO based on their own project

[mostkey]

Great good news, the cryptocurrency word kept evolving, sure other social media platform will follow suit, when Facebook get involve, ultimately government  will have no choice than to embrace the blockchain technology.

facebook is the largest social media in the world. and this is the biggest support for the growth of crypto currency and blockchain technology. and this is believed to make all countries begin to support blockchain technology

[audaciousbeing]

recode

Facebook is launching a new team dedicated to the blockchain. Messenger’s David Marcus is going to run it.
What is the blockchain? Facebook wants to find out, too.

What is the blockchain? And how should Facebook be using it?

Finding answers to those questions is now the responsibility of David Marcus, the Facebook executive who has, until this week, been running the company’s standalone messaging app, Messenger.

Marcus is leaving Messenger to take over a new internal team dedicated to exploring blockchain technology, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. The team will be small at launch, fewer than a dozen people, but will include a few key Instagram executives who are moving over to join Marcus: Instagram’s VP of Engineering, James Everingham, and Instagram’s VP of Product, Kevin Weil.


The move is noteworthy for a couple of reasons:

As the former president of PayPal, Marcus has a lot of payments expertise and has been in charge of Messenger through a lot of significant changes over the years. In fact, Facebook’s decision to split Messenger out of the core app so that users had to download the standalone app in order to receive messages on mobile happened during Marcus’s first month on the job. He oversaw Messenger’s push into customer service bots, shopping and, more recently, advertising. His departure from that role is notable, especially since Messenger is just starting to ramp up its advertising business.
The blockchain, which serves as the technical foundation for all cryptocurrencies — like bitcoin — is all the rage. Facebook’s decision to pursue blockchain technology will most certainly add some validity to the crypto industry, which has been very chaotic. This doesn’t mean that Facebook will build its own cryptocurrency, but there are many ways that blockchain technology could be used that have nothing to do with cryptocurrencies, including encrypted data storage. Marcus does have a personal interest in cryptocurrencies, though. He joined the board of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase in December.
RELATED

What’s next for bots on Facebook Messenger? Maybe helping companies sell.
In his new role, Marcus will report to Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer; Chudnovsky will report to Facebook Chief Product Officer Chris Cox. Both new roles are part of a much larger Facebook re-org that was announced internally this week; it is arguably the company’s biggest restructuring in history.

If Facebook didn't want to go down the way of MySpace, or 2go and other social media platforms that have come and gone with time, they just need to continue to innovate in current technological advancements and because they have gone public, the continuance quest in turning money for their shareholders is a priority that needs to be pursued everyday. This is some good news that needs to be appreciated because its going to give validity to the blockchain technology and strengthen the trust people have as a new untapped industry. But what surprises me is the hypocrisy around this by talking about blockchain and excluding bitcoin or crypto currency from such discussions.

[dupee419]

David Marcus will be leading the team on exploring blockchain, I think with David Marcus a great guy I am pretty sure that they will be successful, I've read the recent reply the post above me and gave me the excitrment and curiousness to make abother reply to this topic once again, I'm just eager to see what could be next in their progress and I'm hoping that they'll be completing their objectives.

[roni12345]

Oh yes! It's such a big news for meh! I hope it will be a markable step for us.