DeSantis touts bill that would ban use of CBDCs in Florida 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis introduced legislation that would ban the use of a federally adopted central bank digital currency in the state, accusing President Joe Biden of eyeing the technology for “surveillance and control.”

DeSantis, a Republican, on Monday announced the proposal that would prohibit the use of a CBDC as money within Florida’s commercial code, a move he says would “protect Floridians from the Biden administration’s weaponization of the financial sector.”

“Florida will not side with economic central planners; we will not adopt policies that threaten personal economic freedom and security,” DeSantis, who’s widely considered as possible presidential candidate in next year’s election, said in a statement.

The move comes after South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, also a Republican, vetoed a commercial code bill this month on the argumet that it might allow a central bank digital currency to be considered legal currency in the state, but would have excluded bitcoin from that state’s definition of money. While it had passed the Republican-majority state legislature, the measure faced opposition from some national Republican groups.

‘No privacy’

While DeSantis first raised his opposition to centrally-controlled digital currencies last year, he’s taken a friendlier approach toward decentralized tokens like bitcoin and has said he was working on ways for Floridians to pay taxes with crypto.  

The Biden administration last year developed policy objectives for a possible CBDC system in the United States, and the Federal Reserve has been researching a potential digital dollar. The Treasury Department is leading an interagency working group to consider the possible implications of a CBDC, the Democratic administration said in September.

“A Central Bank Digital Currency is the cornerstone of a federal government that could track each and every transaction that happens in the world,” Florida state CFO Jimmy Patronis said in the statement on Monday. “There would be no privacy, and if there is no privacy, there are no rights.”

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