With the fervour around cryptocurrencies dying down slightly, but still piquing many people's interest, the easy thing for Facebook would have been to create their own coin. Instead, the company appears to be focusing on the Blockchain technology that empowers cryptocurrencies, with a new division being set up by Facebook, according to reports from Recode.

The precise intention for this Blockchain division is unknown at this stage, but it will be headed up by David Marcus, who used to run the team behind Facebook Messenger. The Verge notes that Marcus has an extensive understanding of payment technologies, having been the former CEO of PayPal, along with serving on the board for Bitcoin exchange platform Coinbase.

How Facebook would look to implement Blockchain on any of the Facebook platforms is unclear, but Marcus did mention that he and his team are still taking the first few steps in the process. "I'm setting up a small group to explore how to best leverage Blockchain across Facebook, starting from scratch," Marcus wrote in a Facebook post.

With Facebook promising to 'fix' the social media platform at the beginning of the year, it should be interesting to see how Blockchain factors into that equation.