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Mark Zuckerberg announced this week that cryptocurrencies could hold the key to shaping future businesses and even solve global problems. The Facebook CEO claimed the decentralizing blockchain technology that currencies like bitcoin rely on will help give future businesses an edge in the market. In a post outlining the year ahead, he also revealed he was studying the booming cryptocurrency markets as a way to "fix Facebook".

GETTY Zuckerberg announced this week that cryptocurrencies could hold the key to shaping future businesses

He called cryptocurrencies one of the most interesting questions in technology right now. Mr Zuckerberg said: "I'm looking forward to bringing groups of experts together to discuss and help work through these topics. "There are important counter-trends to this – like encryption and cryptocurrency – that take power from centralized systems and put it back into people's hands. "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."

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There are important counter-trends to this – like encryption and cryptocurrency – that take power from centralized systems and put it back into people's hands Mark Zuckerberg