Facebook Urges Coinbase Board Member To Lead Blockchain Initiative

Report from Recode states that David Marcus will be letting go of his leadership role at Messenger to lead a new Facebook team concentrated on blockchain technology.

The team which is claimed by few members will include James Everingham, vice president of engineering at Instagram, and Kevin Weil, Instagram’s vice president of product. Stan Chudnovsky, who leads product at Messenger, will take the previous role of Marcus.

Former president if PayPal, Marcus comes with payments expertise. He has previously led major changes at Messenger, including the decision to different Messenger from the core app to give users access to download the standalone app and get mobile messages. He also managed the push into customer service bots, shopping, and advertising.

Facebooks’ decision into blockchain will create a new trustworthiness to the cryptocurrency industry. Even though Facebook will not primarily launch its own cryptocurrency, the company could just as well find new uses for blockchain technology, such as encrypted data storage.

In December, Marcus who has always been passionate about cryptocurrency became part of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase’s board of directors, will be supervised by Mike Schroepfer, Facebook CTO. Chudnovsky will be supervised by Chris Cox, chief product officer.

The new roles are part of a restructuring revealed at the company this week, symbolizing its largest restructuring.

Adam Mosseri who has been operating Facebook’ News Feed, will be replacing Weil at Instagram.