Zuckerberg and Meta rise again to the task of tokenizing Facebook, where there’s a will there’s a way.

Financial Times Article: Facebook owner Meta targets finance with ‘Zuck Bucks’ and creator coins

I enjoyed this article about Facebook or Meta seeking yet another pathway into the Metaverse the Holy Grail of internet technologies next Brave new world. Facebook tried to launch a currency, Libra, which was remodeled as Diem and subsequently died. Now by some accounts he has given up on blockchain, but if this article interviewing his employees is to be believed…maybe not.

source

Meta has drawn up plans to introduce virtual coins, tokens and lending services to its apps, as Facebook’s parent company pursues its finance ambitions despite the collapse of a project to launch a cryptocurrency.

The company, led by chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, is seeking alternative revenue streams … as popularity falls for its main social networking products such as Facebook and Instagram…

Facebook’s financial arm, Meta Financial Technologies, has been exploring the creation of a virtual currency for the metaverse, which employees internally have dubbed “Zuck Bucks”….

Meta Financial Problems

Meta lost more than $220bn from its market valuation in February on the day it revealed users were spending increasing time on newer rivals, such as short-form video app TikTok.

”The company has recently sought other sources of revenue… ….delving into cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology…”

”But the push has been plagued by setbacks and regulatory scrutiny. Earlier this year, the global cryptocurrency project that it spearheaded, diem, was wound down and its assets sold to Californian bank Silvergate, after US regulators refused to give the pilot the green light over monetary stability and competition concerns…”
”..Amid internal frustrations, Meta’s financial division has suffered what one former employee described as a “mass exodus” of staff over the past six months. Its leader left…along with key engineers, compliance staff and nearly its entire legal team.”

”Those who remain are looking into how to create or support digital currencies in its metaverse — an avatar-filled virtual world that Zuckerberg hopes will eventually generate billions of dollars in commerce for digital goods and services.”
”Facebook’s financial arm, Meta Financial Technologies, has been exploring the creation of a virtual currency for the metaverse, which employees internally have dubbed “Zuck Bucks”, according to several people familiar with the efforts. This is unlikely to be a cryptocurrency based on the blockchain, some of the people said. Instead, Meta is leaning towards introducing in-app tokens that would be centrally controlled by the company, similar to those used in gaming apps such as the robux currency in popular children’s game Roblox.>..”
source

My thoughts

• This is an interesting development by one of the worlds biggest, richest, and well funded IT companies.
• The company research into future revenue models appears to keeps bringing them back to cryptocurrency, blockchain, tokens…including NFTs and also a recurrent theme of centralized control of a distributed network.
• It should not be a surprise to those of us in cryptocurrency that a smart, wealthy and international IT company sees the huge advantages of lightening fast transactions, immutable and transparent ledgers and the ability to operate globally, and free of regulation regarding cross border trade.
• In addition we can see that Mark Zuckenberg tried to work with the US government and US regulators to make his dreams come true, but it failed.
• So he sold off the entity he tried to create, and spent 2 years shaping, reshaping, naming, renaming and trying to find an acceptable compromise…but the endeavor failed.
• So it’s back to the drawing board, but certain elements remain: tokens, central control, rewards, and an emphasis on creating a new arena where he can capture peoples time and attention, to earn revenue from it.
• It is interesting to see his multiple attempts to recreate the wheel of social media on the blockchain.
• From my perspective, there are communities he could join, and graft onto his current empire and achieve the control he seeks with stake and anonymity.
• Stake rules supreme in DPOS like Steem and Hive.
• The creator of Steem had a simple premise, use money, in the form of tokens, to incentivize the behavior you want, and use the lack of incentives, as in no money, deincentivizes behavior you don’t want.
• This is a theme Facebook could adopt, and Hive is an ecosystem he could adopt or use.
• ‘And he doesn’t need permission, it already exists.
• If I could speak to Mark Zuckerberg I would tell him to don’t do a Justin Sun move, but you still can use Hive or some other DPOS based social media platform to achieve your dreams.
• I feel funny saying this, because I can think of few people as bold as Mark Zuckerberg, but.. ”the future belongs to the bold”, and it’s corollary: ”it’s better to beg for forgiveness, then to ask for permission.”
  @shortsegments

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