Blockchain at Facebook now has a team of more than 50

In May Facebook VP David Marcus, switched his focus from Facebook Messenger to head up a small group exploring blockchain. Marcus was previously President of Paypal and at the time sat on the board of Coinbase. By July the group’s headcount on LinkedIn was seven and that’s now grown to 54, of which no less than six people are Facebook recruiters. The spotlight was reignited by the hiring of researchers from London blockchain startup Chainspace. Much of this analysis is based on LinkedIn which is not so popular with some developers. Hence the figures should be an understatement.

Reading the tea leaves

In December Bloomberg reported that the possible first Facebook blockchain product would be a stable coin initially targeted at Indian remittances using Facebook’s WhatsApp messenger app. Facebook did not officially confirm this. The social network already has payments within Facebook Messenger which use debit cards. However, Messenger payments are currently only available in the United States, the United Kingdom and France. Blockchain’s appeal is to make cross border payments far cheaper and quicker.

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