Digital Currency/Stablecoin/Tokenization Series: Snippets of Marc Zuckerburg’s Libra Testimony in US Congress

The testimony of Mark Zuckerberg divulged some significant takeaways in the US Congress. First and foremost, Zuckerberg appears to reckon that crypto’s prospects in the global economy, and the longer the U.S. awaits to design and develop its in-house crypto-coin, the it will more lag behind. 

Next, many of the Congress representative still carries dubious eyes on crypto project to establish for mainstream adoption.

In his prepared statements to the Committee, Zuckerberg stated that the project would ensure that the U.S. stays a financial leader globally:

"China is moving quickly to launch a similar idea in the coming months. We can't sit here and assume that because America is today the leader that it will always get to be the leader if we don't innovate. Libra will be backed mostly by dollars and I believe it will extend America’s financial leadership as well as our democratic values and oversight around the world. If America doesn’t innovate, our financial leadership is not guaranteed.”

While In her opening statement, the committee’s chairwoman, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), said:

“Facebook’s plans to create a digital currency Libra and a digital wallet Calibra raise many concerns relating to privacy, trading risk, discrimination opportunities for diverse-owned financial firms, national security, monetary policy and the stability of the global financial system.”

David Marcus Crypto project head and the CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared more persuading in their Congressional appearance today. “Our views (about Libra) have clarified,” Zuckerberg said in response to a question from Rep. Juan Vargas (D-CA) as well. 

He explicitly stated that the project of Libra association wouldn’t be launched until it gets regulatory approval. The elucidation implies that a commitment to withdraw Facebook from Libra, just in case the U.S. regulators reject the approval, alternatively, rebranding of Libra as a payment mechanism rather than developing it as a cryptocurrency, and as an admission that their blockchain was actually not completely decentralized like most cryptocurrencies.

While in an effort to responding a question to Zuckerberg, that Representative Patrick McHenry asked about China, the cut-throat competition due to the rapid rise of its technology companies and geopolitical issues, Zuckerberg told, “today, 6 out of 10 of the top tech giants are from China and certainly don’t share our values.”

Contemplating the Facebook’s recent history, Zuckerberg appeared to be foreseeing the resistance from the Congress, stated, “the financial industry is stagnant and there is no digital financial architecture to support the innovation we need. I believe this problem can be solved, and Libra can help. I get that I’m not the ideal messenger for this right now.”

he further appended that “we’ve confronted a lot of issues over the past few years, and I’m sure people wish it was anyone but Facebook putting this idea forward”.