I am the first person to admire the solution to Byzantine Generals but to wonder what Blockchain can do that a centralised system can. However, Marcus knows that very well -- so I suspect the move corresponds to a core strategic shift for the company. Some use cases that would make sense:
- allow Facebook users to pay each other using BitCoin & Co.(certainly the key feature as Messenger killer and under-utilised feature is its payment option, and Markus’ past at PayPal)
- allow Ethereum & Co. to leverage Facebook Identity (for instance, define “someone” as an active Facebook account with at least 50 active friends, the way I believe Tinder does) for their contracts;
- find a way to run a Facebook-compatible version of Mastodon/Diaspora/etc. off Smart contracts, allowing privacy-conscious individuals to host their social media-like experience on a platform compatible with Facebook but without a identifiable central repository or hard to maintain decentralised structure.
Only the last one is something that would make Marcus excited enough to leave Messenger. The first one is a Hackathon idea, the second probably a project that makes sense once Ethereum (for all its merits) has more compelling use case than a cat-collectibles to its name.
- allow Facebook users to pay each other using BitCoin & Co.(certainly the key feature as Messenger killer and under-utilised feature is its payment option, and Markus’ past at PayPal)
- allow Ethereum & Co. to leverage Facebook Identity (for instance, define “someone” as an active Facebook account with at least 50 active friends, the way I believe Tinder does) for their contracts;
- find a way to run a Facebook-compatible version of Mastodon/Diaspora/etc. off Smart contracts, allowing privacy-conscious individuals to host their social media-like experience on a platform compatible with Facebook but without a identifiable central repository or hard to maintain decentralised structure.
Only the last one is something that would make Marcus excited enough to leave Messenger. The first one is a Hackathon idea, the second probably a project that makes sense once Ethereum (for all its merits) has more compelling use case than a cat-collectibles to its name.