The CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, announced that he looks into putting Facebook logins on the blockchain. Zuckerberg suggested the blockchain could give users unique powers when granting data access to third-party apps.

Facebook and the blockchain

The world famous social media giant Facebook has around two billion users all over the world. It is already well-known that Facebook looks into blockchain technology and how to utilise it. A few months ago, they stated that they looked into creating a cryptocurrency. There were even rumours that they would acquire Coinbase, which is one of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges in the world.

It is also important to mention that the man heading Facebook’s blockchain technology efforts is David Marcus. He was previously in charge of the important Messenger division. Notably, Marcus is also one of Coinbase’s board members, which established ties between the two companies.

Facebook has even made its first acquisition in the blockchain space. The social network hired the team behind Chainspace. The acquisition of Chainspace’s team is the clearest sign yet of the network’s ambition to be a big player in the nascent blockchain industry.

More recently, hackers exploited a security breach in the social network. The breach gave hackers access to sensitive information from approximately 30 million Facebook users. A story covered by Toshi Times.

Will Facebook put logins on the blockchain?

The hack that exploited the user’s details could be a reason why Zuckerberg looks into putting users log in on the blockchain. He revealed his take on blockchain during an interview with Harvard Law professor Jonathan Zittrain on February 20th. He also evaluates to potentially allow internet users to log in on various services via one set of credentials. It would work without relying on third parties.

Zuckerberg even said that people of his generation got into technology because it gives individuals power. Besides giving individuals power, it is not massively centralising. He explained:

“Basically, you take your information, you store it on some decentralised system, and you have the choice to log into places without going through an intermediary.”

Even though the benefits are many, he argues that there are some negative aspects as well that we cannot forget. If a user loses their details or their account gets hacked it is easier to solve on a centralised server than on a decentralised. Mark stated:

“A decentralised system may give users more control over their data, but could also lead to more abuse, and any recourse would be far more difficult than on a centralised system.”

To summarise, Zuckerberg says that a distributed system empowers individuals but would allow more abuse. To intervene as a company would also be a lot harder. However, he finds the possibilities with the blockchain many but argues that there are some obstacles to overcome.



