Facebook to face scrutiny over its cryptocurrency project next month

A few days ago the social media tech giant Facebook announced its own cryptocurrency wallet dubbed Calibra, backed up by more than a dozen companies – including Visa, Mastercard, Uber, PayPal, and Booking.com. But the tech giants plan to launch a global cryptocurrency is going to face scrutiny from the US Senate Banking Committee on July 16.

Facebook has been called before the Senate panel where the digital currency project Libra will be explored to find out if it poses any data privacy concerns or not. According to the committee’s spokesperson, the witnesses for the hearing has not been announced yet, but as Reuters reports, David Marcus who oversees Facebook’s blockchain efforts is expected during the hearing.

The announcement for the hearing came only a day after Facebook unveiled plans to launch a global cryptocurrency, which immediately grabbed attention from regulators around the globe including Washington who showed great suspicion over Facebook’s digital currency. Similarly, on Tuesday Maxine Waters, the Democrat who chairs the House Financial Services Committee said that she also planned to call Facebook to testify, and asked Facebook to hit pause on the project while policymakers analyze it thoroughly.

Last month in May when there were rumors circulating about Facebook’s cryptocurrency launch, the leaders of the Senate Banking Committee wrote to the company and asked for information about the said project and exactly how the tech giant is going to protect consumer information.

A Facebook representative said that the company is looking forward to answering the questions during the hearing. Facebook is planning to launch its digital currency in 2020, with the hope to bring a positive change in financial services around the world. If you want to find out all the details regarding Facebook’s cryptocurrency, it can be viewed here.