Congress Wants To Consider Crypto-currency Regulation in Light of Libra

Congress, that group of technical experts in DC, wants Facebook to hold off on it’s cryptocurrency plans until after Congress can opine (or legislate) on the subject. Given Congress’ track record on almost everything, not only does that not seem likely to produce any results, it would likely delay the project for years.

Don’t get me wrong – I am certainly not a big fan of Facebook and they have shown over the years that their judgement is impaired when it comes to decisions about security and privacy over profits.

Here are some of the players that plan to take a piece of the Libra pie:

Libra’s stated objective is to provide financial services for the underbanked, unbanked and third world.

Congress is likely concerned that this could wind up looking like government issued currency (so-called fiat currency) without any of the protections of a government.

And, given all the players, that is not an unreasonable concern.

But unless Congress actually does their job and enacts a law, I suspect that all they will do is create a lot of photo ops for politicians running for re-election and Facebook and its friends will continue on their path towards total global domination.

The reason I say this is that American consumers will largely be unaffected by Libra, could choose to opt-in if they want or ignore it and it will not affect their life, hence they will not demand that Congress do anything. The financial industry, who stands the most to lose, will likely lobby Congress, but I doubt it will be enough to do anything.

Stay tuned, but do not hold your breath.

Source CNN