The Calexit plan is developing a financial backbone in the form of cryptocurrency to plan the separation of California from the United States
A Brexit-inspired plan aims at separating California from the United States of America so that it can develop a nation of its own. The planners aspire to establish cryptocurrencies as the financial backbone of this propounded nation.
The movement is popularly known as “Calexit”-short for “California Exit”, and it is getting a push by the political action committee, Yes California. Louis J. Marinelli founded this committee in 2015, and it aims to gather support for California’s independence. The name and logo of the campaign were adopted from the Yes Scotland movement of 2014, and it is currently working to collect votes for the independence petition.
A British cryptocurrency expert, named Alastair Caithness, was appointed by this group to administer how cryptocurrencies could be utilized to provide a Universal Basic Income (UBI) and free healthcare in the new economy of independent California.
Caithness, a San Diego resident, appreciated the concept of a crypto-based economy, which he presumes could finance a certain level of free education, free healthcare, and a form of some basic income, to the extent that has never been seen before. He further added that, for a very long time, the citizens of California have struggled for their economic liberty under the financial system formed by the US federal government.
Then he explained that the policy would involve developing a blockchain-based cryptocurrency that standardizes ownership of the land, assets, and other resources of the Californian Government through tokenization into a usable currency. In the crypto world, tokenization implies turning any physical asset, such as land, into a digital one.
So, he clarified that all the people investing or planning to invest in land and property via crypto transactions could greatly help in boosting the propounded implementation of UBI. The idea is that once independence is achieved, all the residents would get fractional ownership of government assets under the model.
According to Caithness, a UBI is essential, especially in a place like California, where around 40 per cent of people are involved in some kind of restaurant, bar, and retail works. He argues that all the people dependent on such businesses will have nothing to do in these grim times of pandemic.
Caithness informed that Yes California has 160,000 members, which is not a good number for a state with a population of more than 40 million. But even after that, he believes, the support for Calexit is growing and California will soon become an independent nation.
A major challenge for the campaign is the controversy of Russian links. Due to this, the founder Louis Marinelli had to step down as a leader and withdraw the proposed ballot initiative.
According to Caithness, Russian links are being used as an easy means for discrediting and putting black marks on the ongoing movement. He says that if people get to know that you are a part of the Calexit movement, then they will start calling you a Russian even though Russia has nothing to do with it. The vote of California’s citizens will decide everything.
Yes California’s president, Marcus Ruiz Evans, is also upholding these independence measures. He claimed that California is the fifth-largest economy in the world and commended Caithness’s advice on the adoption of a crypto-economy, saying that people require assistance, especially in the current situation, and the government is toiling to come up with somebody.
Yes California says that the Californian government has agreed to hold a public petition this year into Calexit, with a vote possibly to be taken by 2024. However, it is still very unclear how much support this Calexit movement gains from the people of California.
A poll, in 2017, from the University of California, indicated that Democrats were much more likely to vote for the withdrawal of California from the United States. Still, less than half of them actually supported the idea. The numbers show that about 44 per cent of the Democrats agreed to vote for the separation, but only 15 per cent actually did that.
The Senate Banking and Financial Institutions Committee of California recently issued a bill set out for defining the digital assets and measuring their impact on consumer and state protection.
There was a potential influence of the Assembly Bill 2150 on how the federal regulators approximate digital assets. It was first proposed by Ian Calderon, majority leader of the California Assembly, who initially presumed that digital assets are not securities. However, amendments to the bill abstained from defining digital tokens any further. Currently, it focuses on administering the department of Business Oversight to direct a study to see if California can represent policies similar to the Security and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Proposed Securities Act Rule 195- Time Limited Exemption for Tokens.
The study aimed at exploring how digital assets are treated as securities, for a limited amount of time, can benefit the state, impact consumer protection, and meet the minimum standards for meeting the exemptions.
Hence, the role of cryptocurrencies is getting serious attention for the independent Californian economy. Although COVID-19 has decelerated the Calexit campaign, the new policies and administration can show remarkable results in the future. If cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin can become the base of an entire economy, then the citizen welfare will be huge. All the ownership patterns will change, and a more secure system of transactions will guide the countries. The government intervention will decrease, and credit facilities will also improve, implying an overall economic upliftment.