Bitcoin's allies in Congress, House Committee lauds cryptocurrency while denouncing Libra

Published on by Cryptoslate | Published on

As Marcus previously emphasized in front of the Senate, if the government does not act, then unregulated systems like Bitcoin, or the cryptocurrency China is exploring, could jeopardize the financial stability of the U.S. financial system.

As posed by the Senate and implied by statements from the U.S. Treasury, Bitcoin and Libra both threaten the monetary system that the United States leverages to exert influence globally.

"Bitcoin is now 10 years old. And now suddenly, magically, Congress is responding. In other words, after more than a decade Congress has apparently started to care. I'm glad after all these years that Congress has finally decided to pay attention to the technology, that could again, just like the internet, upend how we do everything in our lives."

Brad Sherman, a Democratic representative from California, is attempting to push through legislation to ban the sale and trade of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

One intriguing development in Congress was the defense of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies from association with Libra.

Warren Davidson, an Ohio Republican, said that Bitcoin is decentralized and permissionless-unlike Libra.

"A lot of people in this space will use the phrase that you may be familiar with, there's Bitcoin and then there's shitcoin. Are you familiar with that phrase? How would people differentiate between the two," asked Rep. Davidson to Meltem Demirors, an expert on the cryptocurrency panel before the Committee and chief strategy officer at CoinShares.

"The network has been operating for 10 years. The Bitcoin network has been tested. The decentralized nature of the Bitcoin protocol has been tested. People have tried to co-op control of Bitcoin source code that benefit their business model."

Some of the people who have tried to wrestle control of the Bitcoin brand and source code include Bitcoin SV founders Craig Wright, a likely fraud claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto-and his partner Calvin Ayre, a billionaire who made his fortune from online gambling services.

Now, Facebook's Libra, Bitcoin, and other tertiary cryptocurrency protocols, will need to compete to provide people with value as the world of payments is revolutionized.

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