By: Jacob Orledge
BISMARCK, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) – One of the state officials responsible for overseeing the Bank of North Dakota is urging caution as the financial institution begins developing the state’s first stablecoin.
The state-owned bank announced earlier this month it is developing a stablecoin, a type of cryptocurrency, that will be named the Roughrider coin. The digital currency will be able to facilitate instant money transfers, streamline bank-to-bank transactions and, potentially, be used by North Dakotans in daily life, though that is likely years away.
Unlike bitcoin, stablecoin is not subject to volatile price swings because it’s backed by conventional financial assets, overwhelmingly the U.S. dollar. But Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring still wants the bank to be cautious.
“That’s an area we’ve got to be a little more cautious how we’re proceeding, how it’s perceived, and how we manage it,” Goehring said during Monday’s North Dakota Industrial Commission meeting. “Whether it’s media or a whole group of constituents, there’s a lot of questions and a lot of concern.”
Goehring is a member of the three-person North Dakota Industrial Commission, alongside Gov. Kelly Armstrong and Attorney General Drew Wrigley, that oversees the Bank of North Dakota.
Goehring said he’d like monthly updates on the bank’s process.
“There could be some pitfalls, there could be little things that trip us up,” Goehring said.
Don Morgan, CEO of the Bank of North Dakota, said the state’s banks face a strategic question about what poses more risk: Doing nothing and potentially losing customers down the road, or carefully exploring new financial technologies and laying the groundwork for the future.
“We’d rather move and step forward in diligent, thoughtful ways to maintain not only our relevancy, but the relevancy of our community banking and credit union industry, as this world continues to change with things like stablecoin,” Morgan said.
The Roughrider coin has the support of the Bank of North Dakota advisory board, said chair Karl Bollingberg. There’s little downside to educating local banks and credit unions on the new technologies that are gaining steam, he said.
“The level of risk taken to do a Roughrider coin, at this point, very low,” he said. “If you can get into those spaces, be a leader and not have to take high levels of risk, I think that’s viewed pretty well.
Armstrong said new technologies like artificial intelligence and digital banking are advancing “whether we do nothing or whether we do something.”
Armstrong advised finding the “sweet spot” of moving forward without having “the accelerator stuck down to the floor so fast that we’re breaking every rule of the road on the way there.”
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