• Meta is set to create new tokens for its metaverse, with staffers referring to them as Zuck Bucks, sources have told the Financial Times.
• The company is also exploring the launch of creator tokens for influencers on Instagram and reputation tokens for meaningful contributions on its platforms.

Meta Platforms Inc., the parent company of Facebook, may have shut down its Diem stablecoin project, but it’s not giving up on a chance to join the token economy any time soon. According to sources familiar with the matter, the company is set to launch its own tokens for the metaverse, with Facebook staff referring to the tokens as ‘Zuck Bucks.’

Meta Financial Technologies, the financial arm of the social media behemoth, has been in charge of the company’s foray into the world of token creation, sources told the Financial Times.

Zuck Bucks will most likely not be cryptocurrencies based on the blockchain. Rather, Meta is currently leaning towards introducing in-app tokens that would be centrally controlled by the firm. Such tokens would be similar to gaming tokens which are used within a certain game without any value outside that specific ecosystem.

Meta will not be stopping with Zuck Bucks. FT reports that the company is also looking at creating reputation tokens which will be issued as a reward for meaningful contributions within the Facebook ecosystem of apps. It’s also exploring creator coins for influencers on Instagram.

But as the sources told the outlet, the final decision hasn’t been made yet and Meta could change or even drop its plans at any time.

The development of metaverse tokens could be a crucial factor in Facebook’s push to be the leader of the new virtual world. Since rebranding to Meta, it has made it clear that it considers the metaverse to be its frontier for growth, even as its social media side of the business, with both Instagram and Facebook, gradually slows down due to competition from the likes of Chinese short video app TikTok. These tokens could keep users hooked as has been shown with most games.

But do people want a world where Facebook has a seeming monopoly over the metaverse? It would appear not. As CNF reported, 77 percent of respondents in a February study said they don’t want Mark Zuckerberg running the metaverse.

Read More: 77% of people don’t want Facebook running the metaverse as 93% endorse play-to-earn games: Survey

Yat Siu, the chairman of Animoca Brands, the firm behind The Sandbox metaverse ecosystem, captured the situation, telling one outlet, “Facebook is looking to build a closed metaverse, one where they control the data and the network effects that the data derives, so what they are building is less competition than simply antithetical to what we are doing.”