Facebook Inc.’s ambitions in the financial sector may be broader than previously believed.

Citing anonymous sources, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday evening that the company is looking to raise up to $1 billion for a cryptocurrency-based payment system. The digital coin will reportedly be pegged to the fiat to avoid the kind of big price fluctuations that other cryptocurrencies have seen.

Project Libra, as the project is said to be known internally, could emerge as a competitor to payment networks such as Mastercard. The Journal’s tipsters said Facebook’s plan is to let consumers use the cryptocurrency for purchases not only on its own platform but also on other services. The social network is reportedly in talks with “dozens” of financial institutions, e-commerce companies and app developers about adding integrations.

Countless services already enable users to log in with their Facebook accounts. According to the Journal’s sources, the company hopes to build on this existing ecosystem by providing an integrated checkout option for making purchases on external websites.

The cryptocurrency could hold significant appeal for e-commerce companies looking to provide a smoother shopping experience. Logging in with Facebook to make a purchase is much simpler than manually entering credit card details and could provide a PayPal-like experience for those who don’t have an account with the online payments provider. Facebook has 2.4 billion users worldwide, while PayPal has 277 million.

Another way Facebook reportedly wants to set the cryptocurrency apart is by offering lower fees than traditional payment networks. Banks and the other parties involved in processing credit card transactions typically charge a 2% to 3% commission on every purchase.

Facebook employees are said to be exploring other bold feature ideas well, including a rewards program that would allow users to earn a fraction of a digital coin every time they make a purchase. The social network may reportedly reward users for other types of activities, too, including interacting with content and viewing ads.

It’s not clear how Project Libra will mesh with the cryptocurrency that Facebook is said to be developing for its WhatsApp messaging service. Given the company’s ongoing effort to merge the infrastructure behind Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram into a shared backend, the long-term plan may be to develop a single digital coin that will work across all three platforms.

Photo: Facebook