Washington (AFP)

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's boss, was open to the possibility of revising his digital currency project if he failed to get all the necessary green lights, while Libra is under heavy fire from from the regulators.

"Clearly, we have not yet locked exactly how it will work," he admitted Wednesday during a hearing before US officials of the Parliamentary Committee on Financial Services.

The CEO of the social media giant has answered many questions and accusations on the Libra, his project of money supposed to offer starting in the course of 2020 a new mode of payment outside the traditional banking circuits, allowing to buy goods or services. send money as easily as an instant message.

"The goal of the Libra is first to build a global payment system, more than a currency," he said.

Such a system could be simply based on an existing currency, but would be much less ambitious than a new currency backed by a basket of currencies.

"Personally, I am mainly focused on innovation and the manufacturing of a global payment system," he said. "There are already discussions on this subject, on the interest of building this kind of system from specific sovereign currencies rather than a new currency backed by a basket of currencies," he admitted.

Asked about the possibility of linking the Libra only to the US dollar, Mark Zuckerberg replied that "the community (of partners) was divided on this issue".

He conceded that it would be simpler from a regulator's point of view, but that the new currency would be "perhaps less welcome in some places if it was 100% based on the dollar".

He has repeatedly said that the Libra, run by an independent association (made up of companies and non-profit organizations), would not be launched until all the necessary green lights from the regulators have been obtained.

Several elected officials sought to know how far he was willing to go to carry out his project. "The Libra association is separate from Facebook, and if I see that we can not keep up with the principles I've established, then Facebook will pull out of the project," Zuckerberg said.

The project faces criticism and even complete rejection by many governments around the world, who see it as a threat to the monetary sovereignty of states, and do not trust the world's largest social network about its ability to Protect personal data.

© 2019 AFP