US Congress on Libra Overview: Trust, Privacy and Genocide Accusations

Published on by Cointele | Published on

When Brown asked Marcus, "Do you really think people should trust Facebook with their hard-earned money?" Marcus replied that Facebook "Will have no special privilege," the senator then interrupted, "Mr. Marcus, you know better than that." Brown then referred to Libra as a "Recipe for more corporate power over markets and over consumers."

Regarding the membership of the Libra Association, Ocasio-Cortez asked, "Were they democratically elected?" After Marcus answered that they were not, but that the association is governed by membership standards, Ocasio-Cortez summed up Libra as "a currency controlled by an undemocratically-selected coalition of largely massive corporations."

Prior to the hearings, Marcus published a blog post emphasizing that Libra users will not have to put their trust in Facebook.

"Bottom line: You won't have to trust Facebook to get the benefit of Libra. And Facebook won't have any special responsibility over the Libra Network. But we hope that people will respond favorably to the Calibra wallet. We've been clear about our approach to financial data separation and we will live up to our commitments and work hard to deliver real utility."

Facebook has previously denied that the Libra Association would fall under bank rules, but Rep. Ed Perlimutter from Colorado challenged that statement in Congress.

In response, Marcus said the governing body behind Libra has "No plans to engage in banking activities." He added that Libra is not an investment "Because it is designed for stability," meaning speculators wouldn't buy it to trade and earn profits.

These assets consist of a basket of bank deposits and short-term government securities that will be held in the Libra Reserve for every Libra coin that is issued, according to the white paper.

Calibra CEO first attempted to dodge the question by arguing that Libra is "Not designed to compete with bank accounts." Brown quickly interrupted, saying: "That's not the point. The question is: Will you accept all of your compensation in this new currency that you want us to trust you [with] so much?".

The Facebook executive replied: "Trust all of my assets in Libra? Yes, I would." Brown repeated his question for the fourth time, demanding a straight answer as to whether Marcus is ready to receive 100% of his salary in Libra.

During the July 17 hearing on Libra with the House's Financial Services Committee, Marcus reassured the representatives that Facebook would not launch Libra before it has addressed all regulatory concerns.

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