Alert: Governor Burgum Should Veto HB 1082

HB 1082 is a generally bland bill, however a provision relating to crypto-currency may have negative effects on the state's efforts to diversify into that industry.

House Bill 1082 is a bill I have not covered up to this point in the session, it relates to amending the Century Code as relates to the Uniform Commercial Code. Typically a very boring and regular bill. (It has already passed both the House and Senate and is headed for the Governor’s desk.)

But this time around, HB 1082 has provisions relating to crypto-currency and “Central Bank Digital Currency”, which relates to the concept of the government creating its own crypto-currency and essentially making private independent crypto-currencies illegal (government hates competition).

I don’t know much about crypto-currency, not many legislators do either.

What I do know is that Governor Kristi Noem in South Dakota vetoed this provision earlier this year:

“First, by expressly excluding cryptocurrencies as money, it would become more difficult to use cryptocurrency. By needlessly limiting this freedom, HB1193 would put South Dakota citizens at a business disadvantage,” it said.

Her second reason i…