Privacy And Trust Issues: Libra Hearing Continues In US Senate

The ongoing hearing of Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency project with the Banking Committee of the United States Senate is continuing. The latest cryptocurrency news show that the US lawmakers and senators are mostly concerned about Libra’s privacy and trust issues.

This is the main interrogation subject from them. As many best cryptocurrency news sites reported recently, the head of Facebook’s crypto wallet Calibra is stressing the project’s trust and regulatory compliance – but the regulators are not convinced.

For instance, Senator Jon Tester asked about Libra’s privacy and trust issues. He questioned if Libra is able to make assurances against fraudulent purchases or loss of funds, along the line of credit cards or the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. As David Marcus from Calibra responded,  “we will do our best to resolve those types of issues and claims as quickly as possible.” Tester stated that “it is critical that that is resolved before it goes live.”

Another US Senator jumped in the altcoin news. Sherrod Brown of Ohio took a more critical stance towards the project and asked “do you really think people should trust Facebook with their hard-earned money?” Marcus said that Facebook “will have no special privilege,” at which point Brown interrupted: “Mr. Marcus, you know better than that.”

Brown also addressed the privacy and trust issues and asked Marcus if there is anything elected leaders can say that will convince Marcus and the company to not launch Libra. Marcus responded:

“If our country fails to act, we could soon see a digital currency controlled by others whose values differ radically from ours.”

When the chair of the Committee Mike Crapo asked Marcus why the Libra Corporation had chosen to register in Switzerland, Marcus said that they would also register with US regulators. He pointed out that social and financial data would be entirely separate on the Calibra Network and added “in order to earn people’s trust, we will have to have the highest standards in terms of privacy.”

Aside from the privacy and trust issues, the Senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren (known as a big cryptocurrency critic) also jumped in the coming altcoin news and asked about Facebook’s willingness to allow data portability. She asked:

“If a Facebook user wishes to use a wallet other than Calibra, will you make it easy to allow the export of other data?”

In response to this, Marcus answered “absolutely, Senator.” She then followed up by asking for the same commitment for messaging apps WhatsApp and Messenger, on which Marcus hedged too.

The official hearing on Libra with the US House of Financial Services Committee is scheduled for July 17, 2019.