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Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency in the world has lost a lot of its shine in the last 15 months as its value plunged from $20,000 to $3,800 today.
This has made it the perfect time for major financial companies across the world to come out with their very own cryptocurrency.
JP Morgan is a prime example of this as the banking giant has announced that it will soon release its own JPM Coin. There are a number of other major institutions that are expected to launch their own cryptocurrency this year and the company that is making the most noise in the market is social media giant Facebook.
Facebook’s cryptocurrency plans were announced towards the end of the last year and that is expected to become a reality in 2019. Rumors say that the plan is for the cryptocurrency to be used in conjunction with WhatsApp. The encrypted messaging platform would be able to send the coin to friends and family instantly. Despite all of the hype, there’s still not much solid info on the planned cryptocurrency.
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What experts do know is that it will change the face of the global financial industry. For example, if the plans for a Facebook coin do push through and it is integrated with WhatsApp, then it would allow global participants to transfer money to each other very easily. This could potentially tap into the billion-dollar global remittance industry and shake up the entire market.
A number of other messaging services have successfully launched their own crypto coins. These include Telegram and Kakao which is a South Korean based company. This is similar to the attempts by Venmo and Paypal to implement instant payments via smartphone users. WeChat, China’s biggest messaging system also uses a similar function and it is very popular with Chinese users.
Not Truly Cryptocurrency
However, experts are also saying that Facebook’s potential product will not be a true cryptocurrency. One of the main properties of Bitcoin is its decentralization and independence of any central network. This allows for anonymous transactions to take place as there is no need to obtain multiple permissions as in the case of most bank transfers.
Mark Moss, Founder and Market Analyst at Market Disruptors and Signal Profits says Facebook coin like JPM Coin is completely different from Bitcoin as Facebook and JP Morgan will control the coin and this means they will have the ability to reverse transactions, block transactions and also remove you from the network.
However, if a Facebook coin does get launched in 2019, it is quite possible that it will be a massive success given Facebook’s popularity throughout the world. A Facebook coin can potentially affect various industries, especially the payments and remittance industries.
