Facebook reveals blockchain ambitions

Facebook has added a blockchain group to its division.

Facebook has revealed it will appoint new leaders to its main divisions and explore a new blockchain effort in the company's biggest shakeup in its 15-year history.

The blockchain move was confirmed on Twitter by David Marcus, who will lead the new experimental group.

"Time for a new challenge! After four amazing years leading Messenger, I'm going to setup a small group to explore how to best leverage Blockchain for Facebook," Marcus said in his tweet.

The one and only @stan_chudnovsky will take over @Messenger. I'm confident the team will continue to execute and won't skip a beat under his leadership!

— David Marcus (@davidmarcus) May 8, 2018

Marcus, the now former executive of Facebook's Messenger group, sits on the board of directors of Coinbase.

According to CNBC, Facebook will now operate under three divisions: a "family of apps" group (including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger), a new platforms division (including a blockchain technology team, augmented and virtual reality, enterprise technology and artificial intelligence) and a "central product services" team, which covers shared resources like ads, data analytics and security.

Facebook isn't the only major company to explore blockchain. Kodak and Long Island Iced Tea Corp both famously added 'blockchain' to their companies names. Both saw a dramatic increase in stock after doing so, LTEA shot up 200 per cent, while Kodak went up 44 per cent.