Zuckerberg to Appear Before Congress Later Today: Libra’s Future

The founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg will most likely stand before the United States Congress and declare that Libra will not be released anywhere in the world, unless US regulators approve it.

According to the press release announcement from the Chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee Maxine Waters, Zuckerberg will testify in before the Committee later today.

The topic of the congressional hearing will be an in-depth examination of Facebook and its potential impact on the Financial Services and Housing Sectors.

Zuckerberg’s statement has caught quite a bit of attention:

“Facebook will not be part of launching the Libra payments system anywhere in the world until US regulators approve.”

This is definitely not an assurance that Libra will never see the light of day. On the contrary, Zuckerberg seems to be fully aware that China has already developed a “Libra-like” project and is planning to release it in the coming months.

Zuckerberg seems to be fully aware that Libra might just be what the United States need

If successful, China’s new project will most likely threaten the United States’ already shaky financial and technological leadership in the world.

The threat of a Chinese monopoly is something which the United States regulators cannot risk and Zuckerberg seems to understand that perfectly.

As usual, the subject of data protection comes up. Facebook has been caught numerous times openly selling user data to third parties without any penalty. Zuckerberg stated that since Calibra is a regulated subsidiary of Facebook, there is a clear separation between the social data of Facebook and the financial data of Calibra.

Zuckerberg stated:

“Calibra will not share any customer account information or financial data with Facebook. The only exceptions will be made when there is a requirement to prevent fraud or criminal activity.”

It was recently revealed that Libra is now also very open to using national currency-pegged stablecoins if that will fix the project’s woes with regulators.

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