Blockchains irrespective of numerous use-cases surrounding it is a mechanism for fast and secure payments. While Bitcoin and the Blockchain Public Ledger technology introduced have revolutionized the payment industry, various attempts for the same was done before it.

The virtual good economy

Gaming eco-systems where buying and selling of various virtual goods are possible is a massive industry. There are numerous products including blockchain solutions in the space. But there were earlier, non blockchain initiatives on the similar space.

1. Facebook Credits

Yes, this product and project was out there long before much discussions around blockchain based payments.

[Facebook Credits for sale at a Target store in Colorado Springs, September 2010] Image from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pmsyyz ( CC BY-SA 3.0)

Facebook Credits was a virtual currency that enabled people to purchase items in games and non-gaming applications on the Facebook Platform. One U.S. dollar was the equivalent of 10 Facebook Credits.

Currently there a is a page : https://web.archive.org/web/20190602172755/https://www.facebook.com/gamecards but it seems the product is pretty much dead.

After much hype and integration with various Zynga games etc, the platform died out perhaps due to the government regulations.

Google & Social Gold

Google had acquired Jambool which provided similar services like what Facebook Credits where providing.

Jambool, Inc. operates Social Gold™, an industry-leading virtual monetization platform.

Social Gold enables developers to create and manage their own white-labeled virtual currency, to provide a in-app payments experience to their users, and to optimize their virtual economy using analytics. Social Gold powers the virtual currency and payment solutions for thousands of online games and virtual worlds.

(From Jambool's Crunchbase page: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/jambool )

Its unclear what happened to this platform.

Facebook Blockchain / cryptocurrency foundation

Now facebook announced plans to create a blockchain based (?), crypto - currency. Its unclear what is going to be the underlying technology. But it does look like blockchain powered and somehow run by a foundation. Apparently 10 million to be paid to operate Facecbook crypto-blockchain node (https://www.theblockcrypto.com/tiny/report-facebook-plans-to-create-independent-foundation-to-manage-its-cryptocurrency-will-charge-members-10m-licensing-fees-for-right-to-operate-node/)

It looks like we have come a full circle starting with centralized payment solutions which clearly failed even though they were backed by tech-heavy weights. Now the same companies are attempting the payment scenario again with Blockchain based solutions.

The future is blockchain based payments ?

Perhaps the failure of earlier products like Facebook Credits and SocialGold shows us that centralized solutions had limitations in issuing tokens, handling their security and finally convincing the regulatory bodies. Now with the increased awareness created thanks to the crypto-frenzy, the regulatory scenario is much more favorable towards virtual payment mechanisms.

The increased awareness in the end users as well as in the governments about digital and virtual payment modes will favor the adoption of blockchain based payment solutions. With entry of companies like Facebook attempting to re-launch payment products on the blockchain, the technology will get more credibility in the eyes of masses. Whether facebook as a company has its own challenges around privacy and policy issues, we cannot ignore its massive reach via platforms like Whatsapp, Whatsapp Business, Messenger & finally instagram.

So this new chapter that Facebook is attempting in the payment space with blockchain or crypto-based solution can be a big opportunities for numerous startups and initiatives in the blockchain space.