South Dakota governor Kristi Noem has vetoed a bill that aims to exclude digital assets from the legal definition of money – with the exception of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
In an interview with Tucker Carlson, Noem says that the bill needed to be vetoed as it was a clear threat to fundamental freedoms.
Noem also says that under the bill, the federal government could more easily adopt a CBDC, which would be the only viable digital asset.
“It was sold as an update to the guidelines of the UCC [Uniform Commercial Code], backed by all our financial institutions, our banks. As we started reading through it, we saw the section of the bill that changed the definition of currency. And essentially what it did was pave the way for a government-led CBDC, and it also banned any other form of cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC) or digital currency that existed. So for me, it very clearly was a threat to our freedom…
We’ve got the same language coming to over 20 other states. I believe it’s to pave a way for the federal government to control our currency, and thus control people. It should be alarming to people and it’s being sold as a UCC guidelines update.”
Noem is referring to House Bill 1193, which seeks to amend South Dakota’s UCC.
The bill doesn’t specifically name CBDCs, but describes money as something that may be “established by an intergovernmental organization.”
“‘Money’ means a medium of exchange that is currently authorized or adopted by a domestic or foreign government. The term includes a monetary unit of account established by an intergovernmental organization or by agreement between two or more countries. The term does not include an electronic record that is a medium of exchange recorded and transferable in a system that existed and operated for the medium of exchange before the medium of exchange was authorized or adopted by the government.”
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