Davidson agreed that this had been the effect on many he had spoken to, yet also noted that for those convinced of the need for central authorities as stewards of global finance, the hearings only cemented their antagonism toward distributed ledgers and decentralized cryptocurrencies, and intensified their desire to crack down on the space more broadly.
Libra — as a means of payment — could undoubtedly destabilize the status quo, Davidson said, pointing to the fluidity with which monolithic tech giants such as Facebook and Google almost begin to acquire quasi-sovereign properties, challenging governments’ authority.
Libra focuses attention on Facebook’s prior failings
During the congressional hearings devoted to Libra this July, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters — chair of the United States House of Representatives’ Financial Services Committee — made the explicit connection between concerns raised during earlier Facebook controversies and the platform’s bid to launch a stablecoin.
Waters had already requested that Facebook halt work on Libra in the middle of June, soon after the project’s unveiling.
She contended that the tech giant had a “demonstrated pattern of failing to keep consumer data private” and that it had “allowed malicious Russian state actors to purchase and target ads” to — purportedly — influence the 2016 U.S. presidential elections.
U.S. lawmakers have also pointedly asked Facebook how they could be expected to trust a firm whose collection, storage and misuse of customer data had landed it a $5 billion penalty.
