MIT Professor Reportedly Working On Facebook Coin

Christian Catalini, a professor at MIT (Massachusetts institute of Technology) is reported to be working on developing the Facebook coin. According to Coindesk’s report made on the 3rd of May, Catalini is undertaking this project during his leave from the educational institution.

Facebook Launching A Crypto Product Within The Year

According to the report, the news about Catalini collaborating with Facebook on the project was made public by two anonymous sources who claim to be privy to the information. Catalini, who happens to be MIT’s Theodore T. Miller Career Development Professor, is reported to be one of the leading researchers within the token economics field. The professor recently released a co-authored report focusing on ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) and the value of tokens. The report was co-authored by Joshua Gans, a professor at the University of Toronto.

Facebook is the company which own the social media platform which goes by the same name. The company was founded by Mark Zuckerberg and his roommates in 2004 while in Harvard. It has expressed an interest in exploring the use of Blockchain technology in one of its services, Facebook Messenger. To this end, Facebook has launched a new team tasked with researching into Blockchain technology.

Earlier this year, the New York Times reported that the company was in talks with various exchanges on the potential of listing a Cryptocurrency. The report was based on the various efforts undertaken to introduce Crypto to messaging platforms. The Times report stated that Facebook has expressed it will be launching a product, said to be a stablecoin by Bloomberg, in the first quarter of 2019. According to the report, Signal and Telegram are also looking to launch tokens within the year.

Facebook currently boasts 2.5 billion users globally.

Facebook Seeking Investments for its Crypto Project

Earlier this week there were reports that the social media giant is looking for $1 billion in investments for its soon to be released Cryptocurrency. News of the company looking into the development of its own Crypto was made early last year, in May. By the end of the year, Bloomberg was reporting that the social network giant was developing a digital token for its WhatsApp messaging service users. Then early this year, in February, the New York Times reported that Facebook is hoping that its tightly guarded Crypto project would succeed where Bitcoin failed.

As had been previously reported by various news outlets, Catalini was among the people spearheading the Bitcoin Project in MIT. Through this project, the educational institution was able to raise $500K with the aim of distributing Bitcoin worth $100 to every undergraduate student at the institution in 2014.

In one of his most recent papers co-authored by Susan Athey, from Stanford, and Catherine Tucker, from MIT, the professor was looking into the disconnection between consumers’ need for privacy protection and their willingness to let it go. As at the time of publishing, both Facebook and Catalini have not made any comments about the development.

Privacy In Crypto

At Facebook’s F8 developer conference this week, the company’s CEO said that he believes the future of Crypto is private.