Facebook first announced its plans to build a cryptocurrency for WhatsApp transfers last year. As some of you may remember, it first showed interest in bitcoin in May of last year, saying that it would explore the use of cryptocurrency in its own services.
Now, the company is reportedly launching said cryptocurrency, developed to enable Whatsapp users to send and receive money without paying fees, much sooner than expected. In fact, it’s expected to launch within the first half of 2019, if not the first quarter of the year.
The development team is led by former Facebook head of Messenger David Marcus, who also headed PayPal before joining Facebook. In addition to this, Marcus was also on the board of Coinbase, a new crypto startup, before leaving in August 2018 to join the social media company.
Blockchain engineering is handled by former head of Instagram engineering James Everingham, while the blockchain VP of product is Kevin Weil, the former VP of product for Instagram. All in all, there are around 50 people working on the project right now.
