In an era where digital currencies are fast evolving, Facebook is also looking at hopping on the wagon and bring out its own exclusive cryptocurrency.

As The New York Times reports, internet companies including Facebook, Telegram, and Signal are planning to roll out new cryptocurrencies over the next year that will allow one to send money to contacts through their messaging platforms.

Facebook's project is the most anticipated as it is working on a coin that users of WhatsApp could send to friends and family instantly, similar to how Paypal works; crossing international borders for money transfers.

Sources told the publication that Facebook has more than 50 engineers working on the cryptocurrency project. The team working on the project is reportedly tasked to first come up with a coin that would be pegged to the value of traditional currencies, dubbed 'stablecoins'.

Despite the huge potential bitcoins or cryptocurrencies could unlock, there are tons of regulatory and technological hurdles, including lack of a central authority, which stop them from being mass adopted and vulnerable to abuse for crime and scams.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)