Two Republican legislators from Texas, Senator Bryan Hughes and Representative Mark Dorazio, have introduced legislation to create a gold-backed digital currency that could be enacted by the state legislature The bill is expected to be introduced in the state legislature. Policymakers believe the currency would greatly benefit the Lone Star State, providing Texas residents with the ability to bypass the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) as an alternative digital currency.
S.B. No. 2334 Introducing the Establishment of a Gold-Backed Digital Currency in Texas
Recently, U.S. lawmakers have been discussing the reintroduction of the gold standard, and just recently, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia advocated for the return of the gold standard. In addition, certain bureaucrats are vehemently opposed to the creation of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), with politicians such as Ted Cruz, Ron DeSantis, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Green opposing CBDC. Now, two Texas legislators have introduced a bill (S.B. No. 2334) that would allow the state to establish a gold-backed digital currency.
The Texas bill states that “the Comptroller shall establish a digital currency backed by gold so that each unit of digital currency issued represents a specified percentage of one troy ounce of gold held in trust.” Hughes and Dorazio, the sponsors of the bill, explain that “the trustee must hold sufficient gold to redeem in gold all units of digital currency that have been issued and have not yet been exchanged for money or gold.”
The gold standard has long since been eliminated in the United States, and if this bill is upheld, the U.S. Treasury Department may not recognize Texas’ attempt to create a gold-backed digital currency. The U.S. government has also curbed the private creation of alternative gold-backed currencies, as it shut down Bernard von Notthaus’Liberty Dollarheadquarters on March 18, 2007. In doing so, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) seized approximately nine tons of gold and silver backed by Liberty Dollars.
The same year Liberty Dollar was closed, a U.S. federal grand jury also closede-gold, a digital currency project operated by Gold&Silver Reserve Inc (G&SR). However, the gold-backed digital currency proposed in the Texas bill would be operated by the state government. DespiteOver the past 14 years, 13 different stateshave attempted to create state-run, gold-backed alternative currencies, and all of these attempts have failed.
The proposed gold-backed digital currency in Texas would be held in a trust controlled by the state comptroller. The bill notes that “certain monies and deposits held in trust are not subject to legislative appropriations.” It further notes that Texas legislators, by “establishing .
