Meta plans to launch digital currency for applications-Information Technology

Although a cryptocurrency project has almost collapsed, Meta is still considering creating new digital currencies for Facebook and Instagram, and accelerating the NFT project.

Meta is looking for new product lines and features to attract and retain users, given the growth rate of its two main social networking products. Facebook and Instagram is slowly slowing down.

As a result, Meta’s financial technology research arm – Meta Financial Technologies – has been looking into the possibility of creating a digital currency for the virtual universe (“metaverse”), internally titled “Zuck Bucks” ” named after CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

This digital currency will most likely not be a blockchain-based cryptocurrency, according to the Financial Times source. Instead, it will be in-app money and controlled by Meta, like Robux in Roblox or V-Bucks in Fortnite.

According to some internal documents, Meta is also looking into creating “social money” or rather “reputation money”, with a reward function for meaningful contributions on Facebook groups, for example. Another option is to create a separate “coin” for celebrities on the Instagram photo-video sharing network.

Most of these initiatives are in the early stages and are subject to change or cancellation.

However, Mr. Mark Zuckerberg has confirmed that Instagram will soon support NFT. Meta’s internal documents show that the group plans to test NFT posting and sharing on Facebook in mid-May 2022, then allow Facebook grouping based on NFT ownership and add NFT creation.

This is not the first time Meta has tried to introduce a digital currency into its ecosystem of apps and services. In 2009, Facebook launched Facebook Credits, a currency that allows users to buy and sell in apps and games like FarmVille. However, Facebook Credits was officially discontinued in 2013 due to high maintenance costs.

In recent times, Meta has actively sought out new revenue streams from blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, and increased e-commerce support on its platform. However, the Diem cryptocurrency project led by Meta had to downsize and sell the assets back to Silvergate bank due to the lack of regulatory approval.