Facebook doubles down on Libra with 50 new hires

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Facebook has taken further steps to back its Libra stablecoin project, announcing 50 new vacancies at subsidiary Calibra to help drive the project forward to launch.

The new starts will work from Facebook’s Dublin office for its Calibra payments subsidiary, the Irish Times reported. The new team is expected to be in post by the end of 2020, and will focus on developing the cryptocurrency and supporting services.

The hires come despite the firm scaling back the ambition for its stablecoin ahead of launch, following a series of regulatory challenges from authorities worldwide.

Last week the Libra Association, which oversees the development of the project, said it was now planning different versions of Libra pegged to national fiat currencies.

Rather than a single token backed by a basket of different fiat currencies, the revised model will offer individual tokens pegged to different fiat currencies, such as the U.S. dollar and the euro.

The hiring drive at Calibra looks set to take Facebook’s total staff in Ireland up to 7,000 by the end of this year. The company opened its office in low-tax Ireland in 2009, initially with a team of just 30 staff.

Facebook is reported to already be advertising a number of vacancies for its headquarters at Menlo Park in California, seeking developers, those with backend technical skills, and individuals with a background in compliance and regulation: “We’re actively hiring experts in fraud, compliance, workforce management and customer care to expand our operations team supporting the Calibra Wallet.”

“We believe financial inclusion is a problem that can be solved and we are looking for more dedicated professionals to join us.”

Libra was initially due to launch globally in 2020, before experiencing multiple setbacks from regulators worldwide. Amid concerns for the impact of Libra on global financial security, as well as concerns around security, privacy and compliance, multiple regulators worldwide effectively ruled out support for the stablecoin.

They were joined by withdrawals from a number of high profile partners working on the project, including payment companies PayPal and Visa, which had been working with Facebook on developing the stablecoin.

For those considering applying, the good news according to LinkedIn is that many posts have had single digit applications, with some drawing only one or two applicants since first being advertised.

The latest hiring drive is a further commitment by Facebook to the Libra project, and fuels hopes that a launch could still be forthcoming over the next few months.