Some of the largest online-messaging platforms—including Facebook, Telegram and Signal—are planning to roll out cryptocurrencies over the next year. Users will be able to send money to their contacts directly, making it easier to transfer funds internationally. Facebook’s planned currency may be the most anticipated of the bunch, developing a coin for users of its subsidiary WhatsApp. (New York Times)
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Some of the largest online-messaging platforms—including Facebook, Telegram and Signal—are planning to roll out cryptocurrencies over the next year. Users will be able to send money to their contacts directly, making it easier to transfer funds internationally. Facebook’s planned currency may be the most anticipated of the bunch, developing a coin for users of its subsidiary WhatsApp. (New York Times)
Talking point: These companies have an advantage in their reach—Facebook and Telegram’s currencies will have potential user bases of hundreds of millions as soon as they are released. The money-transfer market has been popularized through apps like U.S.-based Venmo and China’s WeChat. Wiring money internationally can be expensive and difficult. That makes services like WhatsApp—already used by diasporic communities to stay in touch with loved ones back home—a promising alternative.
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