Lawmakers made it clear at a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Tuesday that they believe the biggest roadblock to Facebook’s plan to enter the world of cryptocurrency and global finance is the company’s reputation.Facebook’s cryptocurrency project, Libra, has been in the works for more than a year. “Facebook has said ‘just trust us.’ And every time Americans trust you, they seem to get burned.”The initiative is far from the first effort of its kind. Within days, regulators in Washington were calling for hearings on Facebook’s plans.That concern was obvious on Tuesday when members of the committee questioned David Marcus, who leads the company’s cryptocurrency initiative, for more than two hours. Marcus, a former PayPal executive, was handpicked by Mark Zuckerberg , Facebook’s chief executive, to lead the Libra effort.Facebook’s role in the project will be run through a subsidiary company called Calibra, led by Mr. Marcus and other top Facebook employees. Marcus said that the company would not move ahead with the project until the concerns of regulators are answered.

Source: Economic Times July 16, 2019 20:03 UTC