Maxine Waters, Californian Democrat, has raised her concerns about Meta’s intentions in the crypto sector.
The five registered blockchain brand questions from the technology giant could mean its intention to expand its role in the industry.
Summary
Meta and crypto: democratic Waters is concerned about the plans of the technological giant in the blockchain sector
According to what is reported, it seems that Maxine Waters, Democratic representative from California, has raised her concerns about Meta’s intentions in the crypto sector.
In a letter addressed to Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, and the Chief Operating Officer, Javier Olivan, Waters would like to know if the tech giant still wants to expand its role in the blockchain sector.
This is because Meta seems to have filed trademark registration applications related to blockchain, including a couple in 2022.
And indeed, the U.S. Patents and Trademark Office has sent the company five Notice of Allowance (NOA) documents, indicating that Meta’s five blockchain trademarks meet the registration requirements.
In this regard, Meta would have until February 15, 2024 to respond to the first of the five received NOAs, on how it intends to use blockchain trademarks.
That’s why the Waters, a prominent member of the powerful Democratic committee for financial services in the House, would like to know in advance Meta’s plans in the crypto sector.
Goals and crypto: the past misadventures of the technology giant in the sector
At the moment, Zuckerberg doesn’t seem to have officially declared anything about Meta’s role in the crypto and blockchain sector.
On the contrary, the technology giant seems to have experienced real adventures in the past.
To give some examples, just remember the plan of the Libra stablecoin launched in 2019, which envisioned an alternative global currency, but was halted by US regulatory authorities. Not only that, even then Diem, Meta’s downsized stablecoin project did not succeed.
Approaching the most recent years, Meta has come to interrupt the NFT functionality on its Instagram and Facebook apps, to focus on other areas. But even in the metaverse sector, the technological giant seems not to have broken through as it had predicted.
Already for each of these micro-areas of the crypto sector, Meta has invested a significant amount of resources.
Zuckerberg’s announcement to create General Artificial Intelligence (AGI)
According to what has emerged, it seems that Mark Zuckerberg’s new goal for 2024 is to create a general artificial intelligence (AGI).
This is a sector that has little to do with crypto and blockchain technology, obviously, but where Meta now seems to want to allocate its resources.
In addition to the technological giant, AGI seems to have also conquered other companies such as OpenAI and Google.
In this regard, Zuckerberg would have stated that he wants to build and create this general artificial intelligence. Here are his words:
“We have come to the idea that, in order to build the products we want to build, we must build for general intelligence. I think it is important to convey this because many of the best researchers want to work on more ambitious problems.”
