It appears Facebook is planning to compete with Ripple in cross-border payment. The social media giant is researching on creating its cryptocurrency which will give its billions of users around the word opportunities to achieve hassle free cross-border transaction and settlements.

Ripple and other cryptocurrencies who are working assiduously to get the world seamless cross-border remittance options may receive a life-threatening competition from Facebook anytime soon.

A Facebook official who pleaded anonymity disclosed to Cheddar that “They are very serious about it.”

Another Facebook executive said Facebook will possibly need to make “acquisitions in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space to develop its own virtual currency”.

The journey into blockchain started early this year when Zuckerberg, CEO at Facebook announced that it recognised cryptocurrency, which takes “power from centralized systems and put it back into people’s hands.”

However, he intends looking into the “risk of (cryptocurrency) being harder to control.” “I’m interested to go deeper and study the positive and negative aspects of these technologies, and how best to use them in our services.”

Then to the recent announcement by David Marcus, head of Messenger, an ex PayPal president and Coinbase board member, who has been working for Facebook for four years.

Marcus is now in charge of everything blockchain in the firm. He’s to set up a group of who will explore blockchain opportunities across Facebook.

“After nearly four unbelievably rewarding years leading Messenger, I have decided it was time for me to take on a new challenge. I’m setting up a small group to explore how to best leverage Blockchain across Facebook, starting from scratch,” Marcus said in a Facebook post.

Marcus’s now to lead a team of Facebook employees researching on blockchain technology. He knows much about cryptocurrency for the fact that he’s an early Bitcoin investor, and to cap it all, in December, 2017, he joined the board of Coinbase.

Earlier this week, a Facebook Spokesperson told Cheddar that “Like many other companies Facebook is exploring ways to leverage the power of blockchain technology.”

“This new small team will be exploring many different applications. We don’t have anything further to share.”

Clamp Down On ICO

Not long after Zuckerberg revealed its new-year resolution, Facebook began removing crypto related ads, saying the platform is working on securing unsuspecting users who may be defrauded by fake Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs).