US Senate to hold hearing on cryptocurrency and blockchain regulatory frameworks on July 30

The United States Senate Banking Committee is going to hold a full committee hearing on digital currency and blockchain regulatory frameworks next week.

The hearing, entitled “Examining Regulatory Frameworks for Digital Currencies and Blockchain,” will be held on July 30.

As per the details, the witnesses include Jeremy Allaire, Co-Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Circle, on behalf of The Blockchain Association; Rebecca M. Nelson, Specialist in International Trade and Finance, Congressional Research Service; and Mehrsa Baradaran, Professor of Law, University of California, Irvine School of Law.

This follows the recent hearing on “Examining Facebook’s Proposed Digital Currency and Data Privacy Considerations” held on July 16. The hearing saw the Senate Banking Committee questioning David Marcus, Head of Calibra, Facebook, on a range of issues concerning Libra.

The main area of concern among the panelists was “trust” particularly as the social network has been found violating user privacy in the past.

Marcus accepted that they have “made mistakes in the past” and emphasized that they will “do what it takes to address these concerns and if those concerns are not addressed and if the regulatory oversight is not appropriate, then [they] will not launch until it is.”

The committee held a hearing on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology in October 2018 as well. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, said at the time:

“With a decade of experience, much of the irrational exuberance around cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology has subsided, and we have an opportunity to set more realistic expectations for how these innovations might be used to promote a fairer and more competitive economy.”