Facebook is reportedly thinking about launching its own cryptocurrency

It appears that social media giant Facebook might be contemplating rolling out its own cryptocurrency, reports suggest.

The company is purportedly looking into using cryptocurrency to facilitate payments across its various services, according to a report from Cheddar.

The publication further suggests the efforts will be led by David Marcus, who was heading the Facebook Messenger unit until recently.

There are not many details as of yet, but Cheddar indicates that plans could take years to implement. Given that blockchain technologies are still in their infancy, it is unlikely Facebook will be willing to rely on decentralized solutions until they can handle large transaction volumes – an issue the entire blockchain industry is dealing with.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had previously suggested that the company is open to experimenting with blockchain in a new-years-resolution post in January.

“[M]any people now believe technology only centralizes power rather than decentralizes [sic] it,” Zuckerberg said. “There are important counter-trends to this – like encryption and cryptocurrency – that take power from centralized systems and put it back into people’s hands.”

Indeed, reports from earlier this week suggested that Facebook has established a new research and development branch specifically devoted to exploring implementing blockchain-powered solutions in its products.