New Facebook Messenger P2P FB Payments Could Eventually Feature Bitcoin

Earlier today, Andrew Aude, a Stanford Computer Science student, posted to twitter with pictures of Facebook Messenger's new P2P 'FB Payments' functionality. Aude and other commentators likened Facebook's new payment system to Squarecash or Venmo. FB Payments has been in the making for a long time and has recently been revamped by Facebook's hire of David Marcus, former president of PayPal.

David Marcus is an admitted supporter of Bitcoin and likely played an instrumental role in PayPal's warming up to Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Dogecoin via Braintree. Since hiring Marcus, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has confirmed to Business Insider that p2p payments are going to be a huge part of Facebook Messenger. Though the leaked pictures don't suggest that Bitcoin will be present at Facebook Messenger's P2P FB Payments still unannounced launch, Facebook likely has plans for Bitcoin and other digital currencies in the future, once their P2P payment network takes off.

Also read: PayPal's Future Use of Bitcoin Is Closer Than You Think

Facebook Messenger P2P FB Payments First Look

@Facebook Messenger has P2P payments coming. @SquareCash style. http://ift.tt/1pT61YM

- Andrew Aude (@andyplace2) October 4, 2014

Facebook Messenger Is Run by David Marcus, Who Supports Bitcoin

Bank Innovation reports that David Marcus was against PayPal's deal with Samsung, the very deal that likely killed ApplePay and PayPal's budding partnership. It may have been this and other clashes with eBay CEO John Donahoe that led David Marcus to leave PayPal for Facebook. According to John Donahoe in an interview with USA Today, the larger eBay and PayPal split was taken to increase flexibility for both companies. Specifically, Donahoe admitted that PayPal's new freedom would leave it free to pursue even more daring partnerships, potentially with Amazon or Alibaba. Obviously, PayPal and Facebook Payments already have an existing partnership: One that has been shown (if labels are any sign) to be implemented in Facebook Messenger's P2P payments.

It was just last year that David Marcus, speaking with CNET, revealed his opinion on Bitcoin. In a previous conference, he had said that he both liked and owned bitcoins. Earlier this year, David Marcus invested in Bitcoin startup XAPO, while he was still the head of PayPal. PayPal has gone on with digital currency integration without David Marcus at the head; now at a new company, David's positive influence is going to be felt by Facebook. FB Payments is only confirmed to start with PayPal and debit card support; however, Bitcoin could be just over the horizon.

Images from Shutterstock.

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