Facebook called before Senate panel over digital currency project
reuters.com
reuters.com
Privately-issued currencies are a thing, but they tend to be localized, making Libra qualitatively different. And Libra is in no way comparable to payment processors, because those companies don't control the underlying value of the scrip.
The USG is by no means perfect, but I'd rather stick with the Fed than give the Libra association control over the world's currencies.
Edit: Imagine how incongruous the phrase "consumers can vote with their wallets" becomes when their wallets are owned by private companies.
I fear this limits my ability to influence legislators it anyone else when it comes to this issue.
Such things happen all the time with reward points/airline miles/etc.
If the product was already released and loved my millions of voters, the government would be far more limited in their ability to shut it down.
They should have done a simultaneous 'announce and launch'.
> In May, the leaders of the Senate Banking Committee wrote to Facebook seeking information on rumors of its cryptocurrency project, and how it would protect consumer information.
Perhaps Facebook rushed an announcement because of the government inquiry.
There's a limit to how much you can "no comment" your way through a congressional hearing; it would be obvious that this meant that Facebook were working on such a thing, and would increase the likelihood of it getting pre-emptively banned.