Facebook is introducing its cryptocurrency

Facebook plans to create a new digital currency, similar to bitcoin for global use, that could boost e-commerce through its services and advertising on its platforms.

It is planned to start using a digital currency called Libra in the next six to 12 months.

Facebook is leading the creation of this currency and its accompanying technology. More than twenty Facebook partners including PayPal, Uber, Spotify, Visa and MasterCard will help finance, build and manage the system.

Facebook hopes to raise as much as $ 1 billion from current and future partners to support the project.

David Marcus, who leads Facebook’s cryptocurrency operation, wrote in a Twitter message today that Libra is aimed at 1.7 billion people who have not had a bank for 30 years since the discovery of the Internet.

Creating its own currency that could be a threat to banks, national currencies and users’ privacy is unlikely to reduce regulatory interest in Facebook, according to the AP.

Facebook is currently under a U.S. federal investigation into its user privacy practices, and is facing a new investigation into competition protection in the U.S. Congress along with other technology giants.