Facebook, Telegram And Signal Plan Cryptocurrencies for Money Transfer in their Messaging Apps

Facebook, Telegram, and Signal are planning to use cryptocurrencies in their respective messaging app platforms, according to the latest report by The New York Times.

The social media networking giant, Facebook is hoping to launch the digital coin for WhatApps messaging platform in the first half of 2019, The New York Times reported. The same report also suggested that some of the key execs are working on Facebook's secretive blockchain project.

Earlier this month, Facebook acquired staff from blockchain startup, Chainspace. The social media giant is ramping up its efforts on blockchain with a total of 18 roles available for hire, at the time of writing this article

In last December, Bloomberg reported that about possible remittance payments in India using Facebook's own cryptocurrency in India and can be utilized with WhatsApp messenger which is also owned by Facebook. In India, WhatsApp has more than 200 million users. The remittance to India stood at USD $80 billion at the end of 2018, according to the World Bank Report.

Pegging of tokens or cryptocurrencies against fiat currency is generally referred to as stablecoins and these are becoming popular due to their less volatile nature in terms of their price.

The New York Times report stated that "Facebook is looking at pegging the value of its coin to a basket of different foreign currencies, rather than just the dollar, three people briefed on the plans said. Facebook could guarantee the value of the coin by backing every coin with a set number of dollars, euros and other national currencies held in Facebook bank accounts."

Several other companies are offering cryptocurrencies or digital coins. Japan’s Mizuho Financial Group which is planning to launch its stablecoin for remittances and payments in March 2019 while J.P. Morgan, one of the major U.S. Banks, last month launched its own Stablecoin (cryptocurrency) called JPM Coin.

Signal, another encrypted messaging service that has MobileCoin project in progress and raised around USD $30 million according to TechCrunch.

Telegram, the Russian secure messaging service with an estimated 300 million users worldwide, has raised $1.7 billion in its private ICO sale, according to the report by CCN.