Facebook has yet again dominated headlines in the cryptocurrency space, with the head of the Libra project, David Marcus, testifying in front of the United States Congress. The main question lawmakers had for Marcus: can Facebook be trusted? We delved into this deeper with BloxLive TV in our latest edition of The Weekly Show.
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Libra's head faces the Senate
Last week, David Marcus was grilled by the US Senate for roughly two and a half hours on why users should trust Facebook with their money.
The Senate hearing focused around Facebook’s handling of data, its role in contributing to the divisive nature of American politics, and the company’s willingness to comply with US regulators and international law.
Marcus stated again and again that although Facebook’s track record has been so unsavoury, Libra has been set up in such a way that users will not have to trust Facebook, and that the company is willing to wait until all of the regulatory boxes are checked before launching the final product.
Chairwoman Maxine Waters calls out David Marcus
As Finance Magnates reported, Democrat and Chairwoman of the House hearing, Maxine Waters, called out Marcus for his statement that consumers and regulators don’t have to trust Facebook because the project will be operated by Calibra, which he made in the Senate hearing.
But as we pointed out in a previous edition of The Weekly Show, which was echoed by Waters, the project was Facebook’s idea, Facebook is spearheading it and recruiting partners and Facebook’s subsidiary Calibra will provide consumers with a Digital Wallet to store Libra tokens.
Facebook hasn't reached out to all Swiss regulators
In the hearing before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday, David Marcus revealed that the data and privacy protections for its digital currency would come under the purview of the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC).
However, the social media company is yet to approach the Swiss agency to discuss the details of the project, FDPIC confirmed to CNBC. Facebook also confirmed that it had not approached the FDPIC to discuss the regulatory needs.
