Facebook’s hiring spree continues as speculation about its digital currency continue to rise. The social media giant has reportedly tapped two former members of the executive at crypto exchange Coinbase, both of whom will now serve as compliance officers.
More Pros heading to Facebook
The first Facebook hire is Mikheil Moucharrafie. Mikheil worked at Coinbase for about four years, holding positions such as Risk Manager, Compliance Manager, Support Analyst and Quality Assurance Tester, and Anti-Money Laundering (AML)/ Bank Secrecy Investigator.
He shared the news of his departure via a post on his LinkedIn account about three weeks ago, stating that he’d take a vacation before returning to work. Going by the current description on his profile, it would seem that his leave was a rather short one, as he now works as Compliance Officer at Facebook.
In addition to Moucharrafie, the social media giant also hired Jeff Cartwright. Cartwright is a compliance and regulations expert, who worked at Coinbase for 5 years. In that time, he held roles such as the Head of Internal Audit, Compliance Manager, and Director of Regulatory Risk and Examinations.
However, before he joined Coinbase, Cartwright had also picked up some valuable industry experience, working at audit firm KPMG, financial service provider American Express, and banking institution Goldman Sachs as an AML expert.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Cartwright will be working as a Policy and Compliance Manager at Facebook. Both men are widely expected to help implement and maintain the highest safety and compliance standard at the company, especially as its rumored digital asset seems to be nearing launch.
Facebook’s Superstar Blockchain Team
Facebook’s blockchain efforts, although kept mainly under the radar, have been documented extensively. David Marcus, the former President at payment processor PayPal, was hired by the company to serve as the head of its Messenger platform.
However, last May. Marcus was reassigned by the company to head its new blockchain research team. As he was also a former member of the board at Coinbase, the company deemed it fit to entrust him with the role.
Since Marcus’ appointment, however, Facebook has gone on a blockchain hiring spree. The company posted five job openings for blockchain developers on its LinkedIn account, with titles such as growth product manager, business operations manager, software engineer, data scientist, and product manager.
The company also opened a vacancy for a Lead Commercial Counsel, who will guide the rollout of new blockchain and crypto-related offerings. With all of these hires, Facebook has been beefing up its blockchain team, and it is hoped that its rumored digital asset will be worth the wait.
The rationale for the hires is also quite understandable. A company of Facebook’s size launching a digital asset is a massive development by all standards, and given the company’s user count, it is only expected that all hand will be on deck to ensure safety and regulatory compliance.
The Privacy War
Given its history with information handling and user privacy, it’s only right for anyone to be concerned.
On May 9, the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs wrote an open letter to Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg, asking about how the company was looking to handle privacy concerns with its cryptocurrency project, which it dubbed “Project Libra.”
Questions raised by the Committee included how the asset will work, the company’s existing privacy measures, the type of customer information in its possession, the company’s level of correspondence with financial regulators as regards the asset, and whether they had shared any information with “unaffiliated third parties.”
