Mark Zuckerberg announced this week that cryptocurrencies could hold the key to shaping future businesses and even solve global problems.

The Facebook CEO claimed the decentralizing blockchain technology that currencies like bitcoin rely on will help give future businesses an edge in the market.

In a post outlining the year ahead, he also revealed he was studying the booming cryptocurrency markets as a way to "fix Facebook". 

He called cryptocurrencies one of the most interesting questions in technology right now.

Mr Zuckerberg said: "I'm looking forward to bringing groups of experts together to discuss and help work through these topics. 

"There are important counter-trends to this – like encryption and cryptocurrency – that take power from centralized systems and put it back into people's hands.

"I'm interested to go deeper and study the positive and negative aspects of these technologies, and how best to use them in our services."

Mr Zuckerberg claimed that the technology behind cryptocurrencies could even resolve issues like 'fake news'. 

Experts on CNBC also said that Facebook's interest in the crypto-market could be a way to catch up with their Chinese competitors, Alibaba and WeChat, when it comes to mobile payments.

He is not the only Facebook executive with an interest in the digital currency, after David Marcus, the company’s vice president of messaging products, joined the board of Coinbase Inc., one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, last year. 

Mr Marcus said that digital currencies could pave the way to greater democratization.