The two bills proposed by the Texas legislators would make the state’s digital currencies pegged to gold with sufficient reserves.
Senate Bill 2334 and House Bill 4903 were introduced by Texas legislators Bryan Hughes and Mark Dorazio, respectively, to propose state digital currencies which were backed by gold. The almost identical two bills come into the limelight as other United States lawmakers are polarized on the issue of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). As the bills suggest, a corresponding amount of physical gold would be the underlying support for the equivalent amount of digital currency.
Once someone buys a particular amount of digital currency, the comptroller would have to buy an equal amount of gold with the money from the buyer. Hence, the trustee would maintain an equal portion of the gold corresponding to the amount of digital currency bought so that enough reserves are maintained for the time of redemption.
One of the bills states, “In establishing the digital currency the comptroller shall establish a means to ensure that a person who holds the digital currency may readily transfer or assign the digital currency to any other person by electronic means.” The cost for such administration was also to be recovered from a fee, states the bill. Though the bills haven’t been passed yet with a vote, some experts have argued for a consensus regarding digital currencies in the US.
US lawmakers have been divided in their opinion on regulating crypto. Some positive developments have come in from individual states, though, with Arkansas recently passing a rights bill for crypto miners in the state.