James Delahunty
20 Jun 2019 10:59
Only a couple of days after Facebook and partners announced Libra, a U.S. Senate panel has already scheduled a hearing probing the proposed virtual currency.
Libra is a proposed permissioned blockchain virtual currency backed by Facebook and a wide range of partners that make up the Libra Association. While it doesn't have banks among its members, it does include MasterCard and PayPal.
When the virutal currency (sometimes called cryptocurrency, although it is quite different to Bitcoin and others) was announced by Facebook this week, it was immediately met with concerns over data usage and other things.
Maxine Waters, the U.S. Representative for California's 43rd congressional district, who oversees the House Financial Services Committee, called on Facebook to halt the development of the product. She wanted the U.S. congress and federal regulators to have time to examine the proposal.
Today the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs has scheduled a hearing for July 16, 2019. The hearing is described as, "Examining Facebook's Proposed Digital Currency and Data Privacy Considerations."
While the Banking Committee website says that witnesses will be announced at a later date, Reuters reports that David Marcus, who heads up Facebook's blockchain efforts, will be one of them.