{"id":110119,"date":"2019-07-18T05:55:34","date_gmt":"2019-07-18T12:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/?p=110119"},"modified":"2020-04-09T18:42:47","modified_gmt":"2020-04-09T17:42:47","slug":"as-the-u-s-senate-learned-about-facebooks-libra-it-realized-that-bitcoin-cannot-be-killed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/as-the-u-s-senate-learned-about-facebooks-libra-it-realized-that-bitcoin-cannot-be-killed\/","title":{"rendered":"As the U.S. Senate learned about Facebook’s Libra, it realized that Bitcoin cannot be killed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bitcoin has been in the spotlight lately after a tweet from U.S. President Donald Trump where he expressed<\/a> his views on cryptocurrencies, stating that he was \u201cnot a fan\u201d of Bitcoin<\/a> and that its value was highly volatile and based on thin air.<\/p>\n

Since then, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin held a briefing<\/a> about regulating this cryptocurrency because of its use in criminal activity and the threat it poses to the financial system. Mnuchin emphasized that:<\/p>\n

\u201cCryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin have been exploited to support billions of dollars of illicit activity like cybercrime, tax evasion<\/a>, extortion<\/a>, ransomware<\/a>, illicit drugs, human trafficking. Many players have used cryptocurrency to support their maligned behavior\u2014this is indeed a national security issue.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In addition, the U.S. Senate held two different hearings with Facebook\u2019s<\/a> David Marcus<\/a> focused on the Libra<\/a> cryptocurrency. Due to the history of ethical and regulatory violations that Facebook has had in recent years, many concerns about privacy and trust have been raised among top government officials who argue that consumers data could be jeopardized since the firm will now also control the financial information of its 2.4 billion user base.<\/p>\n

“We'd be crazy to give them a chance to let them experiment with people's bank accounts,” said Senator Sherrod Brown. \u201cIt will be delusional to think individuals would trust Facebook with their hard-earned money.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Even though the U.S. government is trying to intervene in the process<\/a> in which any tech giant can basically create their own currency and become a bank, as President Trump stated, they could have come to realize that it will be difficult if not impossible to regulate Bitcoin.<\/p>\n

According to U.S. Representative Patrick McHenry, a ranking member of the Financial Services Committee, regulators have no means of killing Bitcoin. McHenry believes that other iterations of cryptocurrencies that mimic Bitcoin and are not fully decentralized can be easily shut down, but the process is not as simple when it comes to the pioneer cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there is no capacity to kill Bitcoin. Even the Chinese with their Firewall and their extreme intervention on their society cannot kill Bitcoin. So, a distributed ledger, full and open, in the essence of Bitcoin, as a first mover in the space [cannot be killed].\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

"I think there's no capacity to kill bitcoin" says @PatrickMcHenry<\/a> #btc<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/DY70tx2TvV<\/a><\/p>\n

— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) July 17, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n