Meta May Be Making 'Zuck Bucks'

Meta (formerly Facebook) once planned to launch its own cryptocurrency called Libra. The Libra project has disappeared among other projects like Metaverse, but the company has not abandoned its entire blockchain space with Metaverse and NFT plans for Facebook and Instagram. According to a Financial Times report, Facebook's parent company is developing a virtual currency its employees call "Zuck Bucks," named after meta CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg, Zuck Bucks is “unlikely” to become a cryptocurrency. 

Meta is said to be moving towards using tokens in applications that are centrally controlled by companies, similar to those used in games like Roblox. The popular kids game Roblox has an in-game currency called Robux. The game company has built a huge business selling Robux and Meta may try to replicate this success on their own platform.

Meta has not completely distanced itself from its blockchain products as it wants to publish and share NFTs on Facebook. The FT says the company plans to launch a pilot for doing just that in mid-May, according to a memo, and soon after, Meta will test allowing “membership of Facebook groups based on NFT ownership and another for minting” NFTs. The FT previously reported on some of Meta’s NFTs for Facebook and Instagram in January, while Zuckerberg announced that NFT would be coming to Instagram in March.

The report says that Meta is exploring “social tokens" or “reputation tokens" which could be issued as rewards for meaningful contribution in Facebook groups. In a statement to The Verge, Meta spokesperson Lauren Dickson said that “we continuously consider new product innovations for people, businesses, and creators. As a company, we are focused on building for the metaverse and that includes what payments and financial services might look like.” We’ll have to wait to see how Zuck Bucks project will be a cryptocurrency only or an in-app token.