Facebook Is Inviting Washington to Regulate Libra — Good Luck With That

Friday, August 2, 2019

By Eric Ravenscraft

Last week, Facebook faced a grilling before both the House and Senate over its Libra cryptocurrency project. The committees did not seem to be fans of Facebook’s plans to create a global currency. Some of their concerns were due to a general distrust of Facebook, but also because it’s hard even for members of Congress to understand what Libra is.

That might be an obstacle to crafting the regulation that Facebook is inviting.

In the company’s opening statements to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Facebook promised that it would not offer the Libra cryptocurrency until “we have fully addressed regulatory concerns and received appropriate approvals.” In a rare twist, Facebook is inviting regulation before it launches a product, rather than after, as if it were aiming to both move slow and not break stuff.

Photo courtesy of Véronique Debord-Lazaro.

Source: Medium (link opens in a new window)

Categories
Finance, Technology
Tags
cryptocurrency, fintech, public policy, regulations