The North Carolina House of Representatives has unanimously passed a bill to ban payments to the US state using a central bank digital currency, or CBDC.
In a vote held on May 3, 118 members of the state legislature agreed to pass House Bill 690, with only two representatives absent and none voting against. The latest version of the legislation was intended to prohibit individuals from using CBDCs for any payments to the State, as well as prohibiting the Federal Reserve from using North Carolina as a potential testing ground for its own CBDC pilot project.
North Carolina lawmakers introduced the bill to the House of Representatives in April, where it sat in committee before being read and voted on in full. The legislation proposed to amend the statutes to require that “no state agency or General Court of Justice” accept CBDC payments or participate in the Federal Reserve’s testing of a digital dollar.
BREAKING: #NorthCarolina House Unanimously Passes HB690: Banning Payments in #CBDC‘s & Prohibiting NC Participation in Any CBDC Testing
https://t.co/YoDtAvMyVJ
-Referred to State Senate
-Thank you all who worked on this in record time#NCPOL #Bitcoin #multistate #tech pic.twitter.com/ReWJGZ82XB— Dan Spuller (@DanSpuller) May 4, 2023
BREAKING NEWS: NC House Unanimously Passes HB690: Ban on CBDC Payments and Ban on NC Participation in Any CBDC Test
https://t.co/YoDtAvMyVJ
-Referred to the State Senate
-Thanks to everyone who worked on this in record time
The legislative push against CBDCs appears to be gaining more political relevance ahead of the 2024 US elections. In March, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – expected by many to jump into the ring for the US presidential race – called for a ban on CBDCs in the country, claiming the technology was about “policing Americans and controlling the behavior of the Americans.
At the federal level, Rep. Tom Emmer and Sen. Ted Cruz have each introduced bills to restrict the Federal Reserve’s authority over CBDCs or propose banning them altogether. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., another US presidential hopeful, has claimed that CBDCs could “grease the slippery slope to financial slavery and political tyranny.”
The North Carolina bill will go to the Senate, where it must pass before becoming law or be vetoed by Governor Roy Cooper. The North Carolina Buncombe County Board of County Commissioners also approved a one-year moratorium on cryptocurrency mining on May 2.
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