The idea that multinational enterprises could benefit from having their own cryptocurrencies is not far fetched. In fact, Facebook’s forthcoming self-titled stable coin is a prime example of that, says Blockchain Capital Limited co-founder, Gavin Brown.
Trust Shouldn’t Be an Issue With Brand-specific Cryptocurrencies
Brown’s comments came during his recent conversation with CNBC where he suggested that any corporate giant could come up with their own digital currency in a matter of hours. The idea is not “unreasonable” in the medium term, he added.
Using CNBC as an example, Brown noted:
“What we’re seeing really is the democratization of money so you know, if you and I wanted to, we could create a CNBC coin. […] Within three hours, we could have it up and running, and when we transact with people, we could request that we do it using that particular coin.”
On the question of perception and trustworthiness, the venture capitalist explained that people are likely to trust any such brand-specific cryptocurrency if they trust the brand itself (and its products).
Brown, who also serves as a lecturer in Financial Economics at the Manchester Metropolitan University, cited the example of Starbucks Cards to drive his point home.
“They [Starubucks] have got, you know, over a billion dollars of assets worth on their balance sheet of people who prepaid coffee on their charge cards in advance and that’s because they trust the brand, they like the product and they’re confident it will be there.”
Not An Outlandish Concept
Anticipating that the concept of multinational corporate giants creating their own cryptocurrencies may raise a few eyebrows, Brown threw in a counter-argument.
According to him, companies issuing their own digital currencies and asking customers to use those for purchases is “not that outlandish” at a time when enterprises like McDonald’s enjoys a higher credit rating compared to countries like Ireland.
At this point, Brown cited the example of Facebook’s forthcoming cryptocurrency, Facebook Coin, which he says is “probably the next big one that’s coming.”
Facebook Coin
The New York Times reported earlier in February that Facebook is in talks with several leading cryptocurrency exchanges about listing the Facebook Coin.
Citing unnamed sources, the report noted that the new cryptocurrency, which will essentially be a stable coin, is “far enough along that the social networking giant has held conversations with cryptocurrency exchanges about selling the Facebook coin to consumers.”
Meanwhile, speculations are rife that Facebook could roll out a working product by the end of June 2019. The rumors gained further momentum last week with reports emerging that Facebook plans on discontinuing its peer-to-peer financial network starting June this year. The discontinuation, however, will exempt certain types of transactions including donations to charitable organizations.
(For those out of the loop, Facebook’s P2P network enables users to send and receive money from friends and family.)
