Unites States Federal Reserve Chairman – Jerome Powell has aired his views on Bitcoin and Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency; as he believes a globally adopted cryptocurrency system could remove the need for reserve currencies.
Speaking at a session with the Senate Banking Committee setup for hearing of Facebook’s cryptocurrency project, the Fed boss made reference to Bitcoin’s use as a store of value, similar to ‘digital gold’. In his words he notes:
Almost no one uses bitcoin for payments, they use it more as an alternative to gold…It’s a speculative store of value.
This he said in reference to the ‘gold standard’ and use of bitcoin as an investment asset to cushion the effects of loss/inflation in traditional assets like fiat and stocks.
On Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency, he remarked:
The size of Facebook’s network means it could be essentially, immediately, systematically important…Though the initiative has raised a lot of concerns, including privacy, money laundering, consumer protection, and financial stability.
The hearing of Facebook’s cryptocurrency project is slated for this week (July 16 & 17); with anticipation building after President’s Trump tweet and mixed reactions trailing the Libra.
