The hirings will take place across software, product development, data science, risk analytics and business analytics streams at entry, mid-level and senior roles.

The announcements, buried deep in Tesla's 2020 annual report, drove a roughly 20% surge in the world's most widely held cryptocurrency to over $47,000

In taking full control of one of the smaller players in the world's largest payment market, PayPal will compete with domestic payments giants Alipay, owned by Alibaba-affiliated Ant Group, and WeChat Pay

The digital payments processor also confirmed that it closed an account held by Ali Alexander, one of the organizers of the gathering

In March, Bitcoin started a meteoric climb owing to online payments giant PayPal announcing that it will allow its account holders to use the cryptocurrency

For the fourth quarter, PayPal expects adjusted profit to grow in a range of 17% to 18%, below analysts' estimated growth of about 24%

As the e-commerce transaction process entails multiple entities at different stages, such as marketplace, merchants, payment gateways, financial institutes, apart from the consumers, each of them can act as a vulnerability or attack point for malicious actors

Unlike Facebook Pay which seems more of an integration of cross-platform services, WhatsApp pay will be a peer-to-peer, unified payment interface (UPI) based service that will enable users to transfer money within the instant messaging app

David Marcus, who heads the Libra project for Facebook, said he was still aiming for a June 2020 launch of Libra, but acknowledged it could miss that target due to regulatory hurdles

JPMorgan had declined to join the project due to concerns the digital currency could be used for criminal activities that would violate money-laundering and sanctions rules

The latest exodus leaves the Libra Association without any remaining major payments companies as members, meaning it can no longer count on a global player to help consumers turn their currency into Libra and facilitate transactions

Zuckerberg is likely to be peppered with critical questions from lawmakers skeptical of Facebook's efforts to help launch a global cryptocurrency called Libra.

Libra will be backed by a reserve of real-world assets, including bank deposits and short-term government securities, and overseen by the 28-member association

Emerging technologies like blockchain and smart contracts have helped fintech companies to enhance the security of consumer data and make the digital lending process more transparent.

Among all the digital payments apps that are available in India, Google Pay is the most downloaded finance app, followed by Flipkart-owned PhonePe in the month of May

Facebook said it has linked with 28 partners to form Libra Association, a Geneva-based entity governing its new digital coin, which it will launch in the first half of 2020

Mark Zuckerberg-led multinational company is expected to unveil Bitcoin rival Libra next week, while the official launch of the cryptocurrency is scheduled for 2020