“Facebook is considering paying users for viewing ads”

Facebook is considering creating a payment system based on its own cryptocurrency, where users can earn money by viewing advertisements. They can spend that money on Facebook itself and on other websites, reports the Wall Street Journal based on sources familiar with the plans.

According to the WSJ, Facebook would have been working for over a year on a crypto coin in an initiative that was named Project Libra. One of the possible plans is that users can earn small amounts of money when they view advertisements or shop on the Facebook platform. “A bit like points on a loyalty card,” an anonymous source told the WSJ. Specifically, the digital currency could then be used to pay other Facebook users, but also to make purchases on the internet. For example, it could be that a Facebook button appears at the payment options in web shops, where you pay for your purchases via your Facebook account.

Stable crypto coin

The cryptocurrency should also become a ‘stablecoin’: a kind of cryptocurrency that is linked to a traditional currency, such as the dollar. This must ensure that the value of the currency remains stable. To protect the value against volatile fluctuations, Facebook would also be looking for an investment of 1 billion dollars. The internet giant would have already knocked on Visa and MasterCard for this.

Facebook itself did not respond specifically to the plans. In a general statement, it informed various American media that it is constantly “exploring ways to use blockchain technology (on which crypto coins are based, ed.).”