U.S. Congressman Wants Facebook to Replace Libra with Bitcoin 

The drama surrounding Facebook and Libra continues to intensify almost daily, and in light of recent scrutiny over the asset, one lawmaker has come out with a radical proposal.

Speaking in an interview with the Noded Bitcoin Podcast with Pierre Rochard on October 11, Warren Davidson, a Republican United States Representative from the state of Utah, suggested that Facebook could add Bitcoin to its Calibra wallet as opposed to creating an entirely new cryptocurrency. 

Libra is an anchor that is sinking Facebook 

In the interview, Davidson claimed that one of the peculiarities of Facebook unveiling its Libra stablecoin back in June was that it compounded Facebook’s problems. He touched on the Congressional hearings that occurred back in July 2019, adding that those hearings only served to shed more light on its past issues with data and privacy protection. 

Congress hasn’t done anything to help

For his part, Rochard argued in favor of the hearings. According to the host, they provided an opportunity for people who didn’t understand the asset to finally hear from the horse’s mouth. Davidson conceded to his point, but he also believes it could have been more. He said the hearings were an enlightening experience, they also intensified the antagonism from critics of cryptocurrencies and distributed ledgers.

In more ways than one, he was right. The moment Facebook chose to list its stablecoin, the attention of regulators and tech enthusiasts went straight to the social media giant’s checkered past with privacy issues. While people with knowledge of the asset clearly understood Facebook’s objective, no one could stop but question whether they were ready to trust Facebook with their data once more.

The Congressional hearings themselves didn’t do much to help. Billed as an opportunity for Facebook to finally clear the air and make its case to the American people (at the very least), the hearings soon turned into a “Who’s who?” of Facebook’s past mistakes. 

From the very beginning, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), the Chairperson of the House Committee on Financial Services, claimed that Facebook had “demonstrated pattern of failing to keep consumer data private on a scale similar to Equifax.” It went on and on from there. U.S. Lawmakers were happy to pile on, making references to the past as reasons why Facebook should not be allowed to go ahead with Libra. 

However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that Davidson is right about Facebook just adopting Bitcoin. For one, it would be a terrible look for Facebook, considering how much money it has invested in its stablecoin. In addition, there is the fact that incorporating Bitcoin into its payment would put even more traffic on the Bitcoin blockchain. Transactions will be more expensive, and mining will balloon in price as well. Suddenly, the once seamless Bitcoin becomes just another fiat currency; slow, inefficient, and expensive to get.