Facebook defends cryptocurrency plans before Congress

Facebook has demonstrated through scandal after scandal that it doesn't deserve our trust, it should be treated like the profit seeking corporation it is just like any other company. Mr Zuckerberg and his executives have proven over and over that they don't understand The governing or accountability. They're not running a government. They're running a for profit laboratory. No Facebook executives to my knowledge have been harmed by Facebook's experiments. But look what has happened everywhere that Facebook has run its social experiments on us. Their motto has been move fast and break things, they certainly have. They move fast and broke our political discourse. They move fast and broke journalism. They move fast and helped incite a genocide there. And they move fast and they're helping to undermine our democracy. Now Facebook asks people to trust them with their hard earned paychecks, takes a breathtaking amount of arrogance. A breath taking amount of arrogance to look at that track record and think, you know Will, what we really ought to do next. You know what we ought to do next? Let's run our own bank. In our own full profit version of the federal reserve. Let's do it for the whole world. I understand that given the financial crisis Given the massive inequality and unfairness to workers in our country, it's tempting to think anyone could do a better job than the Wall Street mega banks. But the last thing we need is to concentrate even more power in huge corporations. Look at Facebook's record We'd be crazy to give them a chance to experiment with people's bank accounts, to use powerful tools they don't understand, like monetary policy to jeopardize hardworking Americans, ability to provide for their family. This is a recipe for more corporate power over markets and consumers and fewer and fewer protections for my constituents. Thank you Mr. Sherman. When fully formed, we expect the Libra Association to include 100 diverse members. Facebook will only have one vote and will not be in a position to control the association, nor will Facebook or the Libra Association position themselves to compete with sovereign currencies or interfere with monetary policy. In fact, the Libra Association will work with the federal reserve and other central banks to minimize the risk of any competition with their currencies or interference with their monetary policies. These areas are properly the province of central banks. Finally, I would like to turn to Facebook's rule in establishing and realizing the potential of Libra. To facilitate Libra's use, Facebook has established a [UNKNOWN] known as [UNKNOWN], that will offer one of many digital wallets on the Libra network. Using the Culebra wallet consumers will be able to save, spend and send Libra right from their smartphone. If this is successful, Facebook will benefit from more commerce across the family of apps can Libra will be affordable and accessible and will also be safe and secure with strong safeguards to protect users accounts And information we expect the Libra wallet will be governed by rules administered or enforced by Finn Sen. OFAC and the FTC. It will also be regulated by state financial regulators. Libra is committed to protecting the privacy of its customers. The Culebra wallet will not share individual customer data with the Libra Association. Or with Facebook. Except for limited circumstances such as preventing fraud or criminal activity and complying with the law. I am excited about the potential, that Lieber and Killebrew hold and I am proud to have initiated this effort here in the United States. I believe that if America does not lead innovation in digital currency and payments area others will. If our country fails to act, we could soon see a digital currency controlled by others whose values are dramatically different from ours. I believe that Libra can drive positive change for many people and can provide an opportunity for leadership consistent with our shared values.