South Dakota Proposes Bill to Redefine Money, Excludes Bitcoin

South Dakota, a midwestern state in the United States, has proposed an amendment to House Bill 1193, titled “An Act to amend provisions of the Uniform Commercial Code,” Section 1. The proposed amendment seeks to clarify the definition of money in § 57A-1-201, number 27 of the document.

According to the proposed definition, money is a medium of exchange approved by a government in a state, and it does not include electronic records that existed and operated for the medium of exchange before the government’s medium of exchange. Therefore, South Dakota will not recognize digital assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum as legal tender.

The proposed amendment also introduces new meanings to terms such as a bank, bearer, creditor, contract, purchase, record, and more.

Dennis Porter, Co-founder of Satoshi Action Fund, a non-profit organization that educates policymakers and regulators on Bitcoin, reacted to the bill on Twitter. He noted that the proposed bill paves the way for Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) to function and mentioned that the policy would be pushed to 21 states in America to build up pro-CBDC states.

On the other hand, Andy Roth, the President of States Freedom Cactus Network, criticized the amendment. He argued that the proposed bill sets the framework for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to be rejected for transactions while enabling CBDCs to be accepted and should be stopped.

Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has been accepted as a legal tender in various countries, including Germany, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland. El Salvador was the first country to officially use Bitcoin as a legal tender. However, some countries are still wary of digital assets due to their volatility, anonymity, and financial crimes associated with the assets.

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