Facebook's secret cryptocurrency payment system is apparently named "Balance Project"

Facebookcoin, or what we call this, would be about to become a reality.

Following previous reports that such a project was underway, the Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the matter, reported Thursday that Facebook was in talks with "dozens" of financial groups about its cryptographic initiative. super secret currency, which is apparently code. named "Project Balance". Take this information what you want.

According to the Journal, Facebook views the project as a way to further integrate into the lives of its users – unsurprisingly – by developing a piece that can be used on Facebook and the Internet as easily as users use their information. Facebook ID. login information for other websites and services. Not surprisingly, since it's about Facebook, the company would have also looked for ways to link the project to ads:

One idea in the study is that users could click on ads to buy a product and pay with Facebook tokens, which the retailer could then recycle to pay for more ads, said one person. Facebook has launched a similar feature – in dollars and traditional card payments – on Instagram, which it owns in March.

Facebook reportedly met with Visa, Mastercard and other financial companies about the project and hoped to secure investments of about $ 1 billion, which, according to newspaper sources, aim to support the value of the coin and protect it against the standard of volatility of the cryptocurrency. .

"Like many other companies, Facebook is exploring ways to leverage the power of blockchain technology," a company spokesman told Gizmodo in an email, in which he recited a statement. "This new small team is exploring many different applications. We have nothing to share. "

Bloomberg had previously announced in December that Facebook was developing a cryptocurrency for its subsidiary WhatsApp, and the New York Times reported in February that Facebook had encountered crypto-encrypted exchanges about its plans for the play.

Recode reported in May of last year that Facebook had created a blockchain division and was transferring a number of corporate executives to the project, including David Marcus, who was leading the Messenger team before the change. . In announcing his departure from this division in a Facebook publication at the time, Marcus wrote that he would be "setting up a small group to explore the best way to take advantage of Blockchain on Facebook, starting from scratch ".

Last January, Mark Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook that he was "interested in deepening and studying the positive and negative aspects of [encryption and cryptocurrency] technologies, and how best to use them in our services. Interestingly, her site banned ads promoting "financial products and services often associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices", including binary options, initial coin offerings, and a few weeks later. – you guessed it – cryptocurrency.

I'm sure it will be fine. All the other things that Facebook did were great.

Updated with Facebook comments.