Mark Zuckerberg was reluctant to meet the US Congressional Finance Committee of the Congress, where he tried on Wednesday (October 23rd) to defend his digital money project, known as the libra.
"Clearly, we have not yet locked exactly how it will work," admitted Facebook boss Wednesday during the hearing, and was open to the possibility of revising his project if he failed to get all the green lights needed.
While the libra wipes a fire of attacks from the regulators, the CEO of the social media giant has answered many questions and accusations on this cryptocurrency, expected to offer from the current 2020 a new payment method outside traditional banking circuits. The Libra should make it possible to buy goods or send money as easily as an instant message.
"The goal of Libra is first and foremost to build a global payment system, more than a currency," Zuckerberg 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.
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".
A threat to the monetary sovereignty of states
He has repeatedly said that the libra, run by an independent association (made up of businesses 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.
With AFP