Maxine Waters Raises Concerns About Meta’s Plans in the Crypto Sector
Maxine Waters, a Democratic representative from California, has expressed her concerns about Meta’s intentions in the crypto sector. In a letter to Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, and COO, Javier Olivan, Waters seeks clarification on whether the tech giant plans to expand its role in the blockchain industry. This comes as Meta has filed trademark registration applications related to blockchain and has received five Notice of Allowance (NOA) documents from the US Patents and Trademark Office. Meta has until February 15, 2024, to respond to the first NOA regarding how it intends to use these blockchain trademarks. Waters, as a prominent member of the Democratic committee for financial services, wants to know Meta’s plans in advance.
Meta’s Past Misadventures in the Crypto Sector
While Zuckerberg has not made any official statements about Meta’s role in crypto and blockchain, the tech giant has faced challenges in the past. The launch of the Libra stablecoin in 2019 was halted by US regulatory authorities, and Meta’s downsized stablecoin project, Diem, also did not succeed. More recently, Meta discontinued NFT functionality on Instagram and Facebook apps to focus on other areas. However, even in the metaverse sector, Meta has not achieved the breakthrough it anticipated. Despite investing significant resources in each of these crypto micro-areas, Meta has faced obstacles.
Zuckerberg’s Goal to Create General Artificial Intelligence (AGI)
Mark Zuckerberg’s new goal for 2024 is to create a general artificial intelligence (AGI), which is unrelated to crypto and blockchain technology. Meta plans to allocate its resources to this sector along with other companies like OpenAI and Google. Zuckerberg believes that building for general intelligence is crucial to develop the products Meta desires and attract top researchers who want to work on ambitious problems. He stated, “We have come to the idea that, in order to build the products we want to build, we must build for general intelligence.”
Hot Take: Waters Raises Concerns About Meta’s Crypto Plans
Maxine Waters, a Democratic representative from California, has expressed her concerns about Meta’s intentions in the crypto sector. She has sent a letter to Meta’s CEO and COO seeking clarification on the tech giant’s plans to expand its role in blockchain. With Meta filing trademark registration applications related to blockchain and receiving Notice of Allowance documents, Waters wants to know in advance how Meta intends to use these blockchain trademarks. This highlights the need for transparency and understanding of Meta’s future involvement in the crypto industry.
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