Senate hostile towards Libra, Facebook suggests regulators must act or risk losing US dollar dominance to Bitcoin

The focus of the hearing between Facebook's David Marcus and the Senate on the Libra cryptocurrency was trust-or the lack thereof.

David Marcus, the head of Calibra, testified before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs this morning to clarify issues around Libra, the cryptocurrency Facebook revealed last month.

According to the Libra whitepaper and testimony from Marcus, Libra will eventually be lead by a non-profit association of over one hundred member companies based out of Geneva, Switzerland.

"We will take the time to get this right. We expect the review of Libra to be the most extensive ever. We are fully committed to working with regulators here and around the world. And let me be clear and unambiguous. Facebook will not offer the Libra digital currency until we have fully addressed regulators concerned and have received appropriate approvals," said Marcus in his opening testimony.

The Facebook executive's appearance before the Senate Committee comes after Libra attracted national scrutiny from several divisions of the United States government.

The Federal Reserve Chairman, Jerome Powell, said Libra cannot go forward until Facebook addresses concerns around privacy, money laundering, and financial stability.

The Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin stated Facebook has a "Lot of work to do" before convincing him to allow Libra to proceed.

"Facebook is dangerous. Facebook might not intend to be dangerous, but surely, they don't respect the power of the technology they're playing with," said Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat.

Although the Facebook executive does not mention Bitcoin by name during his testimony, the theme of "Falling behind" was mentioned in more than four instances during the hearing.

Still, the Senate Committee was more concerned about the trustworthiness of Facebook over the threat that Bitcoin, or any other payment network, poses to the U.S. financial system.