Why It Would Be Good if Libra Rivaled the US Dollar - Ep.80

Michael Casey, chairman of the advisory board at CoinDesk, CEO of Streambed Media and a former Wall Street Journal reporter who covered global financial and economic affairs, discusses the regulatory response to Libra, in particular the letter from the US. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services to Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg and the head of Calibra, David Marcus, calling on them to halt development of Libra. Casey explains why he think it would be good if the House's concern that Libra becomes "an entirely new global financial system that is based out of Switzerland and intended to rival US monetary policy and the dollar,” as the letter put it. We also discuss the likelihood that Libra actually achieves its goal of financial inclusion for the two billion unbanked, how Facebook's track record with privacy factors in and what smart regulation would look like.  Last chance to participate in the Unchained Survey 2019! Last week to participate in the survey and enter to win a free Casa Bitcoin LIghtning node! Go to surveymonkey.com/r/unchainedsurvey2019 to give us your thoughts what you like about the show, what we could do better and who you’d like to see as a guest.  Those who answer the survey can enter to win one of five free Casa Bitcoin lightning nodes, plus a free year of Casa's Gold membership -- including a multisig security app for iPhone and Android, a Trezor hardware wallet, a Casa faraday bag, and 24/7 support! Those of you interested in learning more about Casa, or about protecting your Bitcoin investment generally, should check out my interview with CEO Jeremy Welch. Thank you to Casa for donating! Again, go to surveymonkey.com/r/unchainedsurvey2019 now to give us your thoughts and enter to win. Thank you to our sponsor! CipherTrace: http://ciphertrace.com/unconfirmed Episode links:  Michael Casey: https://twitter.com/mikejcasey CoinDesk: https://www.coindesk.com Michael’s CoinDesk column on how smart, not heavy-handed regulation of Libra is necessary:  https://www.coindesk.com/a-monumental-fight-over-facebooks-cryptocurrency-is-coming Michael’s CoinDesk column on understanding Libra and the Bitcoin price swings in the global economic context: https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-facebook-and-the-end-of-20th-century-money House Financial Services Committee letter to Facebook executives: https://financialservices.house.gov/uploadedfiles/07.02.2019_-_fb_ltr.pdf David Marcus's blog post on Libra, published after Michael and I recorded: https://www.facebook.com/notes/david-marcus/libra-2-weeks-in/10158616513819148/