Even if Facebook’s Libra project never gets the global acceptance the company had hoped for, it will still have achieved a monumental task. Facebook and Libra have been in the news so much lately that awareness of cryptocurrency is reaching levels never seen before. As a result, people are becoming better educated on the topic and becoming crypto believers. One of these is a man in a powerful political position in the U.S., House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
In an interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box Tuesday, the Republican politician asserted, “I like bitcoin … The real thing I like when it comes to bitcoin is I like blockchain because I like the security. I want the government to start using blockchain.”
McCarthy believes that there’s more of a possibility of Libra being suppressed than accepted. He points out that there are major concerns over the platform’s lack of decentralization, which could lead to regulatory violations and an almost monopolistic mindset. He explains, “When I’m on Facebook, I’m not the customer, I’m the product. Facebook is free because they sell your data to make money. Now they want to get into the business, and they’re not Bitcoin, in this Libra. They’re not decentralized.”
Facebook and members of the Libra team are still being grilled on Capitol Hill over the project. Lawmakers want to know what’s really going on and the social media giant is attempting to quell any negative backlash. It has asserted that it is not motivated by financial gain through Libra, which is why the project is being run by a nonprofit group comprised of Spotify, Lyft, Uber, eBay, PayPal and Visa.
Some lawmakers are keeping an open mind about Libra until the hearings are concluded. Senator Pat Toomey, a former Wall Street banker, is willing to listen to what Facebook has to say before jumping to any conclusion and urges other lawmakers to do the same. He told Squawk Box, “I don’t want to presume in advance that we’ve got to prevent the development of some new innovation,” adding that legislators need to determine Libra’s real goals before making any decisions.
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