Highlights:
- Mark Zuckerberg, in the recent Libra hearing, has said that Libra won’t move forward unless Congress gives the Greenlight
- Zuckerberg then also warned that if Libra doesn’t grown, US will face imminent threat from China
- Congress seems to be unmoved by Zuckerberg’s statements
On 23rd October 2019, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, along with several members of the Libra team sat in front of Congress to answer for the questions the Congress had over Facebook’s ambitions and controversial Libra project. The hearing was held in accordance with the perceived threat policy-makers felt over a currency formed and run by a private corporation.
On of the people present in the hearing, Congress woman Maxine Waters proclaimed “With all of these problems I have outlined, and given the company’s size and reach, it should be clear why we have serious concerns about your plans to establish a global digital currency that would challenge the U.S. dollar”. By the statement, one can perceive the hostility from the government with regard to a competing currency issued by private entities.
Anticipating the negative outlook, Zuckerberg said that Facebook wouldn’t agree to move forward on the Libra project until all of the US regulatory bodies involved gave it a green light. But even that was not taken lightly when the Congress asked Zuckerberg to list all the regulatory bodies the Libra foundation would seek approval from. Unfortunately, the CEO of Facebook did not prepare for that and was unable to come up with an answer.
But to his advantage, Zuckerberg did lay out the threat US would face if they discourage ambitions projects such as Libra. If the US would not allow Libra to move forward, they would face imminent threat as China would beat them to it, said Zuckerberg.
Much has to be figured out from both the sides, if they want to reach on a mutually exclusive outcome, but as of now the question still remains if Congress would allow Libra to love forward with proper regulatory oversight, or will they remain skeptical and crush the seed before it is sowed.