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. He believes that gold-backed tokens issued by the Texas government can be a gateway for Texans to explore digital assets such as Bitcoin. In April 2023, two Texas lawmakers separately proposed two bills to create a state-issued digital currency backed by gold. Under the plan, each unit of the digital currency will represent a specific fraction of an ounce of gold held in a trust. Harris said that this 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 will 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). (Cointelegraph)
