OP-ED: A Train Wreck Avoided: This Independence Day, South Carolina Must Lead Again

Why South Carolina must lead the next wave of digital infrastructure and AI governance

By Dennis Fassuliotis, President, South Carolina Emerging Tech Association Inc.

South Carolina made history in 1830 when it launched the Best Friend of Charleston, the first steam-powered passenger train in the United States. That locomotive wasn’t just a marvel, it was a message. Our state wasn’t afraid to lead, to connect communities, and to embrace the future.

Today, nearly 200 years later, we just avoided another major moment in history, this time a digital train wreck in the form of a federal AI moratorium that would have blocked state-level innovation for a decade.

Congress nearly passed a bill that would have stripped states of their ability to govern how new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) are used. If it had passed, South Carolina—and every other state—would have been forced to wait ten years before making its own decisions about how AI affects education, healthcare, law enforcement, and local business.

But in a world where these technologies are evolving by the day, ten years is an eternity. That moratorium would have handed Big Tech unchecked control over the promise of these innovations, opening the door to a future shaped not by public interest, but by centralized systems, opaque algorithms, and the creeping influence of social credit scoring. And the promise of expanded financial inclusion? It would be ruthlessly curtailed, or lost altogether.

Thankfully, a strong pushback from state leaders helped avert that outcome.

It was a close call, and a wake-up call.

We applaud Governor Henry McMaster for joining 16 other governors to oppose the AI moratorium, and we thank Representative Brandon Guffey for standing up for South Carolina’s right to innovate.

We also want to recognize Senator Tim Scott for his national leadership on financial modernization. As Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, he has helped elevate stablecoins and other digital asset frameworks into mainstream finance policy, opening the door for states like South Carolina to take bolder steps in fiscal innovation.

This Independence Day, we must declare more than our patriotism. We must declare our digital independence.

Just like those early railroads, today’s technology is the infrastructure that will define the next century. And just like in 1830, South Carolina has the chance to be first.

We don’t need to wait for Washington’s permission. We can start right here by building technology we control: a state-run AI data center that supports local businesses, protects residents’ personal information, and improves services in schools and communities. This isn’t about tech jargon—it’s about the tools that will power our jobs, protect our families, and shape our children’s future.

In a collaborative discussion with the state’s Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Cybercrime Chairman, Representative Jeff Bradley, the South Carolina Emerging Tech Association (SCETA), has just release a clear plan. It updates outdated systems and gives our state the chance to lead, not follow, in the next wave of progress.

In 2024, South Carolina’s own $1.8 billion ledger crisis, caused by a multi-year accounting error in the state treasury, was the first alarm, a clear failure of outdated financial and data reconciliation systems. The crisis exposed the fragility of the state’s legacy infrastructure and set off calls for tamper-proof, modern fiscal technology. Coincidentally, South Carolina began moving toward a more AI-integrated future through the establishment of an AI Center of Excellence and efforts to build an “AI-ready” workforce.

Less widely known is that Rep. Jeff Bradley authored a strategic proviso in the state’s budget bill (H.4025) that laid the legislative foundation for the AI Center of Excellence and its associated workforce training programs. These two worlds—education and digital infrastructure—are now beginning to converge into a comprehensive and, yes, groundbreaking strategy. One that could serve as a national model for how decentralized state-level systems can enhance cybersecurity while complementing essential centralized federal functions.

Next Tuesday, leaders from across the country will gather in Washington, D.C., for the National Strategy for AI and Crypto policy forum. Senator Tim Scott will be delivering the keynote at this inaugural event. It presents a real-time opportunity for South Carolina to announce its leadership, not just in concept, but in commitment. This is our moment to show how quickly and decisively our state can move when it chooses to act. Because when South Carolina sees something worth going after, we don’t linger politely in the background, we lead.

So we must ask: whatever happened to the idea of federalism, where states take responsibility not just for roads and schools, but for their digital future too?

In the digital age, federalism isn’t just about which level of government gets to make decisions. It’s about a state’s responsibility to its citizens expanding into the digital realm. That means protecting not just property and rights, but an individual’s digital diversity—how they store value, communicate, and participate in the digital economy.

South Carolina should stake its claim to digital and financial sovereignty, just like Florida, Texas, and New Hampshire have done. These states have taken bold steps to assert their independence by exploring Bitcoin reserves, following the Constitution and making gold and silver legal tender, enabling digital asset investment and innovation, and defending innovation from federal overreach. We certainly don’t want to follow the path of Connecticut, which recently passed legislation banning the state from creating a strategic Bitcoin reserve or investing in any digital assets. That’s not leadership. That’s forfeiting the future.

It’s time to lead. Let’s lay the tracks again. This time into the digital frontier.