There has been a lot of publicity over the past few months about the creation of a new cryptocurrency by Facebook. The social media giant has decided to call it Libra. There are many people who are very nervous about the world’s biggest social network launching their own cryptocurrency. There are currently more than 2.4 billion people who use Facebook on a regular basis. There is a fear that many of these people who live in small countries will start to use Libra instead of their own national currency. This would cause it to become devalued.
It is because of these concerns and many others that the United States Congress is taking a very close look at exactly what Libra will involve. David Marcus, the Facebook employee who is in charge of the Libra project, has already testified in front of Congress on two separate occasions. Maxine Waters is the head of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee. She has led the charge to investigate the Libra project. This also involves looking into Calibra. This is a subsidiary of Facebook that will be creating the digital wallet software that will be used in conjunction with Libra. She has received support in her efforts from many of the other people in Congress.
David Marcus told the congressional committee that Facebook will follow all of the laws of the various countries that Libra will be available in. According to coindesk.com, one of the main concerns of politicians all around the world is the possible use of Libra by terrorists and other criminals. Cryptocurrency was famously used for criminal activities in its infancy because of the fact that it allows users to pay for things while remaining completely anonymous. Even though Bitcoin and some of the other cryptocurrencies have started to be traded by legitimate exchanges, criminals are still drawn to it.
Money laundering is also a concern of many governments. In fact, China has placed a complete ban on the use of cryptocurrency within their borders. Some other countries are thinking about doing the same thing. Facebook wants to officially release Libra early in 2020. However, there is no time frame regarding when the U.S. Congress will be finished with their investigation. It is very clear that Maxine Waters knows what is at stake. She does not seem convinced with many of the answers that Facebook has provided so far. Therefore, she wants to dig deeper.
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