Few politicians are pro-crypto and pro-bitcoin. This can have various reasons such as fear, which may be due to a lack of knowledge, that bitcoin is a threat to the status quo. But there is now one American congressman who believes that Facebook should switch to bitcoin, in favor of Libra.
“Libra is still a shitcoin”
Congressman Warren Davidson achieved immortal status earlier this year when he called Libra a shitcoin. He compared Libra with bitcoin and emphasized the importance of the decentralized nature of the latter coin. There is no central authority that can censor transactions or manipulate value.
“Shitcoin” is not profanity. It is a highly technical term in monetary economics.
I sincerely thank you @WarrenDavidson for introducing such an important concept to the rest of the members of the US Congress. pic.twitter.com/0S7NVjn4AH
– Michael Goldstein (@bitstein) July 17, 2019
“All these characteristics differ from what many people call” shitcoin “. The value can be disrupted by a central authority, and that is a risk for users. “
Centralization makes Libra a security
Davidson took part in a podcast this week in which he wondered why governments want to know everything about money flows. He also discussed Facebook’s proposed cryptoplans.
His main concern is the central nature of Libra. Facebook owns and manages all data on their platform and Davidson expects Zuckerburg’s company to exercise this level of control on every digital currency that they build.
Davidson also expects Libra to be regulated as an effect (security), should the currency ever come out of it. He argues this with the fact that the Libra Foundation can influence the exchange rate of the currency.
“If that central authority is able to manipulate the value of Libra, can it be nothing more than a security?”
Fewer lines with bitcoin
He gave as an example that the value of Libra would be damaged if they chose to add a currency such as the Venezuelan Bolivar to the fiat reserves.
He adds that Facebook should use bitcoin better, the app would not be regulated so hard.
“I hope they try because it would be a much better idea than Libra,”
Do we want freedom of expression?
Facebook already filters and controls what people see in their feeds with their algorithm. Davidson wonders aloud whether people also want the same filters on their monetary transactions.
“Do we want filtered speech or free speech? Do we want filtered transactions or freedom? “
Libra provides a better understanding of bitcoin
The host of the podcast Michael Goldstein sees an advantage to Libra. He says that people have come to understand bitcoin better due to the problems with Libra. Davidson agrees, but he thinks that a better understanding of bitcoin has also made politicians such as senator Brad Sherman go even further in the sand.
Another nice quote from the podcast about Joe Kernen from CNBC. It seemed as if he learned more about bitcoin every day, thanks to all the Libra discussions this year.
“During this Libra thing, we could see in real time how Joe started to understand bitcoin by seeing Libra’s problems.”
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