Through the bills, the state wouldn’t necessarily outright buy bitcoin using taxpayer funds. The bills would, however, create the reserve to be used in emergency situations, for government philanthropic spending and more at the discretion of the Legislature and comptroller.“The beauty of a Texas strategic bitcoin reserve (through these bills) is it's primarily driven by donations, and there's really no risk to the Texas taxpayer. It's only a net positive,” said Lee Bratcher, founder and president of Texas Blockchain Council.
This is interesting. Has anyone committed to donating bitcoin to this?
If not, the bill with a five year holding period might be a trojan horse for getting state agencies to accept bitcoin as payment:
Allows the comptroller the option to tell some state agencies they can accept bitcoin as a form of payment.
The other bill isn't much different except it doesn't have this payments aspect or the holding period, but it does have a provision about the state buying bitcoin:
The major differences that Bratcher noticed between the two bills is the minimum holding periods and whether the state would outright purchase bitcoin.