Facebook's blockchain head removes conflict, leaves Coinbase board 

For Facebook, that would be a heavy regulatory burden to assume, particularly at a time when lawmakers and consumers are pushing the company to clean up its processes for protecting user data.

<p>Following the Cambridge Analytica scandal earlier this year and the social network's acknowledgement of how broadly its platform was used by foreign actors ahead of the 2016 election, CEO <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/mark-zuckerberg/">Mark Zuckerberg</a> testified in front of U.S. and European legislators. All have demanded greater accountability and even regulation.</p>

<p>But Coinbase, which ranked 10th in the latest <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/22/meet-the-2018-cnbc-disruptor-50-companies.html">CNBC Disruptor list,</a> brings obvious potential appeal to Facebook. As of December, Coinbase had <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/27/bitcoin-exchange-coinbase-has-more-users-than-stock-brokerage-schwab.html">13.3 million users</a>, according to data compiled by <a class="inline_asset" href="https://twitter.com/alistairmilne" target="_self">Alistair Milne</a>, co-founder and chief investment officer of Altana Digital Currency Fund. That was up from 4.7 million a little over a year earlier, and was more than the number of customers at brokerage <a class="inline_quotes" data-gdsid="31188" data-inline-quote-symbol="SCHW" href="//www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=SCHW">Charles Schwab</a>.</p>

<p>Facebook is willing to open up its wallet for rapidly growing platforms of engaged users — whether that's Instagram for photos or WhatsApp for messaging. And even with its stock price up only slightly this year, Facebook has a market value of $520 billion — plenty of ammunition to take on a company the size of Coinbase.</p>

<p>Still, by all accounts, Coinbase has no interest in selling. Even with the cryptocurrency markets cooling this year, after a gangbusters 2017, Coinbase has grand ambitions.</p>

<p>In his <a class="inline_asset" href="https://blog.coinbase.com/quarterly-retrospective-what-we-accomplished-at-coinbase-in-q2-2018-32b4558603e8">second quarter update</a> to employees last month, Armstrong highlighted the hiring of five senior leaders in the quarter, 59 people in product and engineering and the launch of new business units to focus on general, professional and institutional investors.</p>

<p>Coinbase has also been an acquirer, buying four companies in the quarter, including <a class="inline_asset" href="https://news.earn.com/earn-com-joins-coinbase-a282a36411d2">Earn.com</a>, an email product that lets senders pay users in cryptocurrency.</p>

<p>"We're at the beginning of imagining what might be possible when we combine all of the brilliance of these teams with all the opportunity ahead of Coinbase," Armstrong wrote.</p>

<p>As for Marcus's latest move, Armstrong said in a statement that "he remains a close friend of the company, and we thank him for his help along the start of our journey to create an open financial system for the world."</p>

</div><script async src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><br /><center><hr/><em>Posted from my blog with <a href='https://wordpress.org/plugins/steempress/'>SteemPress</a> : https://coinmarketnewstoday.com/2018/08/facebooks-blockchain-head-removes-conflict-leaves-coinbase-board/</em><hr/></center>