U.S. intends to legislate to ban large technology companies from issuing digital currencies

According to a copy of the draft legislation seen by Reuters, a proposal to prevent large technology companies from operating as financial institutions and prohibiting the issuance of digital currency has been distributed to the majority of seats in the House Financial Services Committee. The Democratic Party is discussing.

“Bitcoin vs. Ethereum”by QuoteInspector is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

But such a comprehensive proposal may lead to opposition from Republican members who are keen to innovate, and the bill may be difficult to get enough votes in the House of Representatives. Even if it is approved by the House of Representatives, it still has to pass the Senate vote to become law, the latter is a very difficult struggle. But the proposal still sends a strong signal to large technology companies that are increasingly concerned about financial services.

The proposal is called the “Keep Big Tech Out Of Finance Act”. It defines a large technology company that refers to technology companies that primarily provide online platform services with annual revenues of at least $25 billion.

Facebook, which meets this definition, said last month that it will launch its global cryptocurrency in 2020. Facebook and including MasterCard, PayPal, UberThe 28 partners will form the Libra Currency Association to manage this new cryptocurrency. But no bank has joined it yet.

US President Trump criticized Libra and other cryptocurrencies last week and asked companies that want to “become a bank” to apply for a banking license, subject to the US and global regulations.