Libra: US Financial Services Committee led to an increase in Bitcoin

This morning, the Financial Services Committee of the US House of Representatives held a hearing on the Libra cryptocurrency, which had a positive effect on Bitcoin.

If yesterday’s congressional hearing led to quite harsh statements by politicians and the fall of Bitcoin, today’s meeting was a bit more positive, and the rate of the first cryptocurrency responded by increasing by 3%. Now bitcoin is trading at around $ 9,700.

As at yesterday’s hearing, politicians repeatedly spoke negatively about Libra and Facebook, but Calibra project manager David Marcus (David Marcus) was more confident in responding to legislators ’claims. Finance Committee Chairman Maxine Waters said:

“Facebook has already demonstrated the habit of not being able to keep consumer data confidential at a scale similar to Equifax. In addition, the network allowed Russian attackers to buy and target advertising. ”

However, Marcus assured the audience that things are different now and Libra is going to “develop a safe, reliable and cheap way to transfer money for people from all over the world.” He also stressed that the Libra project will be launched only after all issues and claims have been resolved by regulators and the US Central Bank. Rep. David Scott replied:

“Your white paper and subsequent messages from Facebook do not provide specific details about the anti-money laundering program, user identification policy and, most importantly, how you are going to ensure the security of our financial system.”

Calibra, the head of the cryptocurrency wallet project, responded that Libra would have all the necessary policies to combat money laundering and identify users, and they would be sent to all members of the association. At the same time, the blockchain is beneficial in that it can provide additional information to regulators and law enforcement authorities.

“I believe that we can improve the current financial system. We have a chance to think over everything in advance so that everything is securely regulated, and the identification procedures are reliable and well-developed. It is necessary to track unusual activity qualitatively and this can be done thanks to new technologies. I think that in this regard the system will be better than the current one, ”said Marcus.

He also noted that the user of Calibra and Libra can be any person who has passed the identification procedure and lives in the countries where the project will be launched. Congressman Brad Sherman (Brad Sherman) said:

“We need to hear Mr. Zuckerberg. This is the largest project of the decade for our Committee. We are told that innovation is always good, but when Osama bin Laden launched two planes into the WTC towers, it was also innovative. If the cryptocurrency will be used to finance the next terrorist attack, even a hundred lawyers receiving $ 200,000 per hour will not be able to protect Zuckerberg from the wrath of the American people. ”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also asked the question, asking why Facebook, which already does a lot of things, is now going to issue currency and act as a payment operator, and why one corporation will do it all.

“The only thing we are trying to solve is to help people who are left out of life and financial services. We believe that this is important, and we can invest in and create products to give such people financial services that will help them, ”said Marcus.

Note that yesterday the former chairman of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Gary Gensler, said that the stable Libra is a security that must be regulated by the SEC.