Facebook has successfully recruited an MIT professor – Christian Catalini – to help design its new digital currency Facebook Coin.

Specifically, 2 unknown people have leaked the information to Coindesk, regarding the employment Facebook made with the MIT professor. Catalini – who was working as the Theodore T. Miller Career Development Professor at MIT – is widely known for his research in the token economics field. He – along with his partner, University of Toronto professor Joshua Gans – has reportedly published a new report aimed to provide extensive knowledge in initial coin offerings and the value of tokens.

Both Facebook and Catalini are yet to make any comments, confirm or deny the information

Catalini was one of the members of the team securing a $500K fund for the MIT Bitcoin Project, with $100 worth of Bitcoin given to MIT undergraduates in 2014.

After the first rumors about Facebook putting resources into forming its own digital coin went public in May 2018, the social media heavyweight Facebook is reportedly now trying to attract investors, in an attempt to secure a $1 billion fund to advance its cryptocurrency project.

From the point when the news about the new crypto project broke up to now, many major publications have increasingly reported updates on its process. Somewhere around the last months of 2018, Bloomberg revealed that Facebook is developing a new coin specifically for its billion-user messaging application Whatsapp.

Later on, in February 2019, Facebook’s “secretive” cryptocurrency project is making enough progress for it to consult with crypto exchanges about selling a Facebook token (“Facebook coin”) that could launch as early as in the first half of the year, as The Crypto Sight reported.