Facebook’s Calibra is looking to create 50 new roles for its workforce in Ireland, as the firm seemingly bucks the trend of private-sector layoffs during the coronavirus crisis.

An Irish Times report on April 20 revealed that Calibra’s small team in Dublin is set to be significantly expanded this year, with Facebook noting that its Irish operations are “critically important” for its roadmap.

Calibra’s Irish expansion still depends on regulators’ cooperation

Based in Ireland since 2009, Facebook employs 5,000 people in the country across its various partner firms, such as Instagram and WhatsApp.

Founded in 2019, Calibra has been at the center of the tech giant’s evolving digital currency strategy, which is being reshaped significantly under global regulatory pressure.

Alongside its Dublin offices, Facebook runs a data center in Clonee, County Meath, and established a research lab in Cork for its virtual reality subsidiary Oculus back in 2017. Laura Morgan Walsh, head of operations for Calibra, told reporters:

“During this time of global uncertainty, we’re continuing to invest in our team located in Dublin. We’re actively hiring experts in fraud, compliance, workforce management and customer care to expand our operations team supporting the Calibra wallet.”

Facebook secured an e-money license from Ireland’s central bank as early as 2016, but has said that the pace of its new hires for Calibra in the country will remain tied to regulators’ responses.

Facebook has been forced to make major changes to its design of a global stablecoin, Libra, most notably shifting away from an asset that would be backed by a basket of fiat currencies to one backed by single-currency stablecoins.

An updated whitepaper for Libra revealed that the network will now only be accessible to regulated crypto companies initially, and that unhosted wallets will be subject to balance and transaction limits.