PANews reported on November 22 that according to Cointelegraph, a Texas congressman believes that the state's proposed gold-backed digital currency can play a key role in promoting the popularity of cryptocurrencies. Cody Harris, a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives, spoke about the development of gold-backed tokens in Texas at the North American Blockchain Summit on November 21. In a fireside chat with David Duong of Coinbase, Harris believed that gold-backed tokens issued by the state government could be a gateway for Texans to explore digital assets such as Bitcoin.
In April 2023, two Texas lawmakers separately introduced two bills to create a state-issued digital currency backed by gold. Under the plan, each unit of the digital currency would represent a specific fraction of an ounce of gold held in a trust. Harris said the initiative could help skeptics become more accepting of cryptocurrencies by providing a government-issued digital alternative before transitioning to decentralized assets such as Bitcoin; for those who are very reluctant to own Bitcoin or explore cryptocurrencies, tokens issued by start-ups would make them feel somewhat "reassured" compared to government-issued tokens. While encouraging Texas' gold-backed digital currency project, Harris is opposed to central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
