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A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO STUDY THE HOLDING OF BULLION AND VIRTUAL CURRENCY AND THEIR POTENTIAL BENEFITS AND WHETHER TO ESTABLISH A NORTH CAROLINA BULLION DEPOSITORY FOR SUCH ASSETS.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts: SECTION 1. The Department of State Treasurer shall conduct a study that examines (i) the process of acquiring, securely storing, insuring, and liquidating any investment metal bullion as defined in G.S. 105-164.13(69), such as gold, and virtual currency as defined in G.S. 53-208.42(20), such as Bitcoin, that may be held on behalf of the State, (ii) the expected impact of allocating a portion of the General Fund to investment metal bullion and virtual currency to hedge against inflation and systemic credit risks, reduce overall portfolio volatility, and increase portfolio returns over time, and (iii) the costs, benefits, and security of utilizing a privately managed depository or another state’s depository or creating a State-administered depository in North Carolina to serve as the custodian, guardian, and administrator of certain investment metal bullion and virtual currency that may be transferred to or otherwise acquired by this State or an agency, a political subdivision, or another instrumentality of this State and to provide a repository for investors to use for such assets. The Department of State Treasurer shall 18 report on the results of the study, along with any legislative or other recommendations, to the 19 Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations by January 1, 2024.
SECTION 2. There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of State Treasurer the nonrecurring sum of fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) for the 2023-2024 fiscal year to conduct the study required by this act.
SECTION 3. Section 2 of this act becomes effective July 1, 2023. The remainder of 24 this act is effective when it becomes law.
what if we were to take all of the labels away? no currency label, no commodity or security label. what then? do the intrinsic properties (censorship resistance, immutable, near instant, distributed, decentralized, fixed supply, etc) of a hard digital asset have value to you? does the ability to send some mutually agreed value to another person “instantly” and without intermediary financial friction have value to you?
I would say these intrinsic properties have value to many people. I am not tryng to convince anyone to do anything, but I am trying to rebut the (intentionally?) confusing comparison of the these digital assets to things that they they are clearly not.
I am a huge proponent of user anonymity and strong end-to-end public-key cryptography based on open standards. But none of these things necessitate bitcoin or equivlanet. Proof of work, proof of effort, etc, have no place in any of those ideals.
as am I - and I think hard digital assets fit pretty well into that ethos.
for the transfer of a specific type of value between people, i think hard digital assets are needed and worthwhile (bitcoin is one, but not the only, example of this). perhaps this is simply a fundamental differing of opinion/perspective? if so, then I really appreciate your good faith engagement in this discussion (they are rare on any forum) and we’ll just agree to disagree? I am still game to discuss at any time. just let me know.
edit: completion of thought