Governor Roy Cooper of North Carolina has rejected a bill banning the state from implementing any Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) issued by the US Federal Reserve.
Roy, a Democratic, says the decision of both houses to prohibit CBDC through the House Bill 690 (HB 690) was hasty, vague and reactionary.
In a statement, the governor described the legislation as premature, “vague and reactionary and proposes an end result on important monetary decisions that haven’t even been made yet.”
He suggested that instead of the the bill titled, “An act to prohibit payments to the state using central bank digital currency or participation by the state in Federal Reserve’s testing of central bank digital currency,” the lawmakers should have made provision for more funding for cybersecurity threats.
Recalled that both chambers of the North Carolina General Assembly had supported the bill, with a 109-4 majority in the House and 39-5 in the Senate.
Roy advised that more efforts should be put in place to protect the consumers, investors, and business owners who are interested in CBDC rather than outright ban, saying, “North Carolina should wait to see how they work before taking action.”
Lawmakers should override the governor’s veto – Blockchain expert
Meanwhile, a senior director of industry affairs at the Blockchain Association in Washington DC, Dan Spuller has called on the North Carolina legislature to override the governor’s veto.
He believes that digital assets policy should remain in the hands of the American people, “ensuring that any development of digital currency reflects our values of privacy, individual sovereignty, and free market competitiveness.”
CBDC remains debatable
Debate ober the adoption of CBDCs has remain globally, not just in the U.S. In May specifically, the US House of Representatives voted 216-192 to prohibit the creation of a CBDC without explicit authorisation from Congress,where only three Democrats voted for the bill.
Even countries that have rushed to adopt CBDC such as Jamaica, Nigeria, and the Bahamas are either at a crossroad by making pro and anti-crypto policies at the same time.