Facebook has rejected US lawmaker demands to halt its plans to launch a digital currency, despite two days of bruising hearings in Washington where the scheme was attacked as a threat to users’ privacy, the banking system and national security.
David Marcus, the co-creator of the Libra cryptocurrency, told members of the House financial services committee on Wednesday that Facebook would not launch the project until it had sign-off from the necessary regulators. But he would not agree to stop working on the plans, as demanded by several senior members of Congress, or to launch it in a limited pilot project first.
Mr Marcus told the committee: “This needs to be analysed and understood, and the proper oversight needs to be set up before Libra can launch.”