What are the plans for Facebook with the technology blockchain? The question stirs a lot since the announcement last may of the recruitment of David Marcus to take over as head of a division devoted to this new technology. Information revealed by the site Cheddar gives a few tips: according to sources close to the matter, the group led by Mark Zuckerberg is said to have recruited almost all of the team of developers of Chainspace. This start-up is british, created by researchers from University College London, is working on "smart contracts" (stand-alone programs that automatically perform transactions without requiring human intervention, once booted) and on a protocol to improve the speed of transactions on the blockchain Ethereum. According to Cheddar, the researchers Chainspace also work on the way in which the technology blockchain can be used in domains other than the payment, such as surveys for example.

The site states that Facebook has not bought the company, or a technology, but its gray matter. "Like many companies, Facebook explores the power of the blockchain. This new team will work on many different applications" confirmed a spokesperson for Facebook. On LinkedIn, three of the researchers - Alberto Sonnino, George Danezis and Shehar Bano have updated their profile with their new employer.

Several of the sites had spotted since mid-November that the job page of Facebook mentioned several posts of experts blockchain. Facebook has not disclosed the amount of this investment. According to Cheddar, Facebook has also had discussions with another company, Algorand, who have not been successful.

in The spring of 2018, Facebook announced it had launched a research group to explore the potential and opportunities that can bring this new technology, based on a system of transactions and decentralized cryptography. The choice of David Marcus, former president of Paypal and former head of Facebook Messenger, in the position of "director of strategic blockchain" indication of seriousness that the group is bringing to its challenges. The last one had left last August, the board of directors of the great platform for the exchange of cryptomonnaies Coinbase to avoid any potential conflict of interest. In may, David Marcus said you wanted to "explore how best to take advantage of the blockchain through Facebook, starting from zero."

in Late December, anonymous sources cited by Bloomberg indicated that Facebook was working on the creation of a cryptomonnaie type stablecoin (that is to say, anchored to the currencies actual type dollar or euro) for money transfers within its messaging WhatsApp. Facebook is testing since a year a payment solution via WhatsApp in India.

Mark Zuckeberg was mentioned for the first time, his interest for the blockchain in its resolutions of January 4, 2018. "There are important counter-trends such as encryption and the cryptomonnaie - who take the power of the centralized systems and deliver it in the hands of the people. But they may be more difficult to control. I am interested to study in depth and to study the positive and negative aspects of these technologies, and the best way to use them in our services," he wrote then.