American legislators are open to meeting with Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg October 29 to talk about Facebook’s plan for a Libra stablecoin, but there’s a condition – they also want a visit from the Zuck-man himself before next year.
Cointelegraph reports today that Sandberg is prepared to follow presentations by David Marcus, who, as the CEO of Facebook subsidiary Calibra, has testified to be committees about fighting money laundering and fraud and assuring them that the Libra stablecoin would be a net positive for the U.S. economy.
Apparently, some lawmakers want to hear it directly from Mark Zuckerberg’s mouth.
This news comes as we also hear about major backers potentially peeling away from the Libra initiative – with Visa and MasterCard having second thoughts. There are also breaking reports today that PayPal may also rescind its offer to become a Libra stablecoin node backer for a price tag of $10 million.
“The Financial Times reported Thursday that payments firm PayPal is considering leaving the Facebook-initiated crypto project due in part to the regulatory backlash Libra has received in recent months,” wrote Nikhilish De yesterday at Coindesk, also covering some of the concerns of Visa and Mastercard.
Lately, congressional committees have been holding a number of chaotic hearings on American federal government issues. If Zuckerberg’s hearing is anything like that, it promises be a circus of recriminations, deflections, and simply pleading the fifth. But there’s no reason to suggest that it might be – this kind of private-sector hearing would have very different implications – not so much to the rule of law, but to the impact of Libra on economics, and there’s planet of room for debate and discussion.
What lawmakers are essentially worried about is that as an alternative to the dollar, Libra would cause monumental fluctuations in economic activity, and that could destabilize American markets.
Stay tuned as Facebook staff, including the head honcho, continue to try to convince regulators and others that Libra will be safe for use.
