Facebook is looking to hire an experienced executive to run its new Libra digital currency project, which is expected to go live in mid-2020. According to David Marcus, Vice President of Facebook, choosing someone with experience in centralized banking currencies would be a great choice to oversee the currency.
“We need someone who knows how economies tend to work, who understands how to operate in a very complex, decentralized governance environment,” Marcus said, sensing a multi-billion-dollar opportunity to improve the payments system via its own digital currency called Libra next year.
The new digital wallet for the Libra currency will be available on Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and as a standalone application in 2020. Facebook will be linking up with 27 institutions around the world to start working on the non-profit Libra currency. Marcus was quoted as saying, “We have had talks with banks and we still have talks with banks. I expect that by the time Libra starts next year, a large group of banks will be members of our project.”
According to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, “In addition to our efforts, many other companies will be building their own services using Libra — from payment companies like Mastercard, PayPal, PayU, Stripe, and Visa, and popular services like Booking, eBay, Farfetch, Lyft, Spotify, and Opera.
“A number of leading companies are also joining to help drive innovation on the Libra Network. We hope there will be more than 100 founding members of the Libra Association by the time the network launches next year,” Zuckerberg said.
Facebook currently generates 99 percent of its revenue from advertising and a digital currency that should help it reach billions of users across products — with the goal of creating another stable revenue stream and making cryptocurrency-based payments mainstream.
