With cash app, Venmo, online banking, and more, people are growing more dependent on moving money digitally and online, rather than cash and checks. Additionally, with centralized banking causing worry for people over the control of money, Texas might become the first state to add the right to own digital currency, without government prohibition, to the Texas Bill of Rights. 

The Texas House of Representatives has passed House Joint Resolution 146 by State Representative Giovani Capriglione (R). HJR 146 amends the Texas Consitution to say, “the right of the people to own, hold, and use a mutually agreed upon medium of exchange, including cash, coin, bullion, digital currency, or privately issued scrip, when trading and contracting for goods and services shall not be infringed.”

HJR 146 further amends that the government would not be able to prohibit Texans from owning cash or cash substitutes, including cryptocurrency. The provision of a “mutually agreed upon medium of exchange” gives businesses the right to refuse digital currency as well.

The Texas House of Representatives voted in favor of the bill by 136 votes. 

Forbes explained in an article the negative aspects of centralized banking and where cryptocurrency is able to benefit owners of digital currency because of its decentralized nature. Centralized banks have access to your data which includes social security, IDs, spending habits, address, demographic data, and where you work. With centralized banking, Texans are at risk of having their financial privacy misused, shared with the federal government or third parties, or hacked. 

Forbes wrote that the original goal of Bitcoin was “to eliminate the need for a trusted third party and enable two willing parties to transact directly without having to suffer from the weaknesses of a trust-based model.”

The bill was written as more banking and money transactions are moving to the digital platform and financial elites are moving to get everyone on their financial services. 

Supporters of the bill, including The Texas Constitution Enforcement group, believe it’s time to recognize the rights of Americans to use digital currency and counteract the growth of centralized banking. “An essential part of keeping Texas strong and free from federal interference is the protection of the financial health and privacy of Texans. An unstable dollar can destroy the wealth that Texans have spent a lifetime producing. Texas cannot allow global financial elites to force Texans to use and pay for their services, leaving all of their financial eggs in one basket, subject to devaluation and confiscation,” wrote the Texas Constitution Enforcement group.

Texas would be the first state to make the use of cryptocurrency an individual right. The Texas Constitution Enforcement group believes that either other states will start adopting this measure, or that the federal government will go after the legislation, and Texas can use the 9th Amendment in federal courts to uphold a precedent for all Americans. 

“[The] objective of adding this to the Texas Bill of Rights is to make a case in the federal judiciary to invoke the 9th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which says that there are other natural rights besides those in the first 8 amendments,” said Tom Glass, Founder of the Texas Constitutional Enforcement group. “If Texas recognizes, the feds should under the 9th. So now, if feds mess with Texans, we have a 9th amendment argument in the federal judiciary.”