Digital Dollar Likely Won’t Be Part of Retail Banking World, US Lawmaker Says

I sometimes joke, this is a really interesting and important space, but it was introduced to the Congress in just about the most catastrophic way possible. And, of course, I’m referring to the hearings that the Financial Services Committee held on Libra. Prior to that, I don’t know that many members of Congress had ever even considered the concept of a stablecoin or knew much about digital assets. I sometimes joke that if you had a bunch of evil lobbyists sitting around after a bottle of whiskey and saying, “what’s the most catastrophic way to introduce the Congress to a concept,” one guy would say, “well, give me [Meta (formerly Facebook) CEO Mark] Zuckerberg.” And then let’s have him talk about a pervasive global currency. I mean, it was just a catastrophe, right? That sort of soured an awful lot of people for no particularly good reason. I mean, I don’t know that there’s anything wrong with Mark Zuckerberg, I’m just saying that as a sort of presentational matter that may not have been the best introduction.