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by yawaworht1978 1600 days ago
I am totally against all things Bitcoin, however, it's not coined exclusive in the us and the constitution is not immutable, else it would be a very bad document that can't get with the times.

Anything in the constitution is not canonical forever.

3 comments

> Anything in the constitution is not canonical forever.

It is, however, canonical until amended or SCOTUS interprets it away.

Constitutionally, it appears quite clear Arizona can't do this currently, and the law as a result would almost certainly be immediately stayed and struck down if passed.

The required interpretation appears readily available. Arizona wouldn't issue anything, but they'll gladly accept it.
It says states can't make something legal tender. Nothing about acceptance.

Arizona can accept Bitcoin all they like. They cannot make it legal tender in Arizona.

So, they'd have to print it in gold. Still an option at the worth of it currently.
No, that wouldn't work. The gold printout would be worth its weight in gold, not the value in Bitcoin of the data printed on it. If you used $1 worth of gold to print one BTC worth $40k, the recipient would only be legally required to count it as $1 towards your debt.
Who says that? This thread seems to be full of arm chair lawyers as another comment just told me that there is no gold standard since 1970.

Whatever, the thing I want to buy with the particular coin would immediately reduce 40.000 fold in price. That might be illegal in some sense, if contracts are bound to stay valid across fluctuation, but that's basically how markets work.

In the end it's all numbers on paper anyway, so I don't see the immediate implication, except that a state is supposed not to go on a lone run.

Arizona can a accept taxes in sheep if they want. What they cannot do is require their citizens to accept sheep when they want to be paid in USD. Same deal with Bitcoin.
"No State shall ... make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts"
Currently the constitution is mostly immutable considering how split our country is.
We can’t even elect a president on a popular vote. It’s immutable enough.