Report has it that there are now 100 people known to be working on Facebook’s crypto project via profiles on professional networking platform LinkedIn. Facebook is also reportedly not done hiring, with over 40 openings still available in the team’s business unit.
The aim of Facebook’s new crypto project, according to advertising on its career descriptions, is to provide a public service centered on accessibility:
“Our ultimate goal is to help billions of people with access to things they don’t have now — that could be things like healthcare, equitable financial services, or new ways to save or share information.”
David Marcus is the head of Facebook’s blockchain-based project. Marcus served on the board of cryptocurrency exchange and wallet service Coinbase and previously worked as the president of PayPal.
Also, Facebook developer Eric Nakagawa will reportedly take the title, “head of open source.” Nakagawa has reportedly championed open source projects in the past at PyTorch artificial intelligence (AI) software. Nakagawa also previously acted as founder and CEO of popular 2000s humor website, “I Can Has Cheezburger?”
Facebook may relinquish control of its cryptocurrency governance to third parties, in order to provide a degree of decentralization. Additionally, Facebook will reportedly announce its secretive crypto project some time this month, at which point its employees will be allowed to take part of their salary in the platform’s native cryptocurrency.