News in Brief

Facebook setting up blockchain division

Facebook

David Marcus, head of Facebook messenger, will switch roles to head up a small group to explore how to leverage blockchain across Facebook. Marcus is on the board of directors at Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange.

Before the four years he spent on Facebook messenger, a large part of Marcus’ career was spent on payments. He was President at Paypal where he worked for three years after the company acquired his startup Zong for $240m in cash in 2011.

Zong was the leading mobile payments provider for gaming and social networking companies.