A measure barring the use of a “centralized digital dollar,” also known as a central bank digital currency or CBDC, in the state of Florida was signed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Friday.
DeSantis has been unrelenting in his criticism of CBDCs, claiming last week that they are an example of “woke politics” that he wants to put an end to. The section of Florida law that specifically defines money now adds the following caveat: “The term does not include a central bank digital currency.”
DeSantis said during the press conference that the government of President Joe Biden declared last year that it would be researching CBDCs because it wanted to “crowd out and eliminate other types of digital assets, like cryptocurrency.”
In its last appearance at a Florida House of Representatives session last week, SB-7054 received just one vote against it. DeSantis said that a CBDC would be about “surveilling and controlling Americans” when he first submitted the measure in March.
A few days later, DeSantis said that only corporations, not individual tax payers, would be permitted to use Bitcoin to pay state taxes in Florida.
DeSantis has been dominating surveys for possible Republican Party candidates, despite the fact that he hasn’t officially declared his campaign, and he just published a book outlining his position against what he refers to as “woke” politics.
