The head of Facebook's digital currency project, Libra, was back on Capitol Hill on Wednesday for a second grilling by U.S. lawmakers.
A day after testifying to the U.S. Senate, David Marcus told the House Financial Services Committee that Facebook “will take the time to get this right.”
House Democrats are already working on draft legislation called the "Keep Big Tech Out of Finance Act," which would do exactly what its title suggests.
Republicans on the committee are taking a different tack, arguing that the government shouldn’t be stifling innovation and entrepreneurship.
David Marcus has now finished his two-day Congressional marathon, after another grilling in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday.
"I wish we could trust Facebook. It's pretty clear there's almost nobody in this committee that does,” said U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown.
Senators also scolded the Facebook executive for the company’s sketchy record on protecting users’ privacy as it tries to push into the payments market.
The tech giant is making that move as regulators around the world scramble to figure out how to approach cryptocurrencies.
"Regulators haven’t really come to terms yet with whether they are really willing to let cryptocurrencies exist as a form of money. There’s a whole international set of understandings and frameworks that really have to be dealt with,” said Paul Kupiec from the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.
Facebook says it will launch its digital currency in 2020. That means the tech giant has until next year to build the platform and convince lawmakers in Washington, D.C., not to legislate against it.
The company’s digital currency plan is faced with a chorus from regulators, central bankers and governments saying it must respect anti-money-laundering rules and ensure the security of transactions and user data.
"The sovereignty of nations cannot be jeopardized,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said at the two-day meeting of G7 finance chiefs in Paris.
"The overall mood around the table was clearly one of important concerns about the recent Libra announcements, and a shared view that action is needed urgently,” he added.
German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said Facebook’s plans do not “seem to be fully thought through,” noting that Libra cannot go ahead without all legal and regulatory questions being resolved.
