New Wyoming Blockchain Draft Bills Aim to Protect, Entice Projects
December 3, 2018 by William Peaster
The Wyoming blockchain pivot continues, as a series of new draft bills aimed at fostering and defending cryptoverse enterprises will now be brought before the state’s full House of Representatives. If passed, the proposals would add to laws already passed in 2018 that have put Wyoming at the vanguard of embracing digital assets in the United States.
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Wyoming Blockchain Embrace Only Beginning, New Proposals Suggest
Wyoming’s chances of becoming a hub for blockchain-based businesses have seemingly taken another tangible leap upward.
Last week, a legislative panel in the Wyoming House of Representatives voted 13-1 in favor of a draft bill that would mandate the creation of “special purpose depository banks” for blockchain and cryptocurrency enterprises in the state.
That vote brought the number of blockchain-centric draft bills being brought to the state’s full Legislature in January 2019 to six.
These proposals “have an elevated chance of becoming law [because] they’re now ‘committee bills,’” according to Caitlin Long, a Wall Street veteran and bitcoin evangelist helping the crusade to make Wyoming a blocktech hub.
Some real momentum building in #Wyoming starting with last year’s blockchain-friendly bills & quite likely another 5 coming down the pike. I’m likely to incorporate a few of my startups there (though we need more savvy & local practicing lawyers). See @CaitlinLong_’s thread? https://t.co/hjLriXmcAp
— Christopher Allen (@ChristopherA) December 2, 2018
As for the draft banking bill in particular, Long noted it was meant to address the “horror stories” of blockchain enterprises having their bank accounts shuttered and the lack of banks that specialized in servicing the regulatory demands of these companies.
As outlined, the proposed special purpose depository banks would be mandated to accept deposits from digital assets companies that meet requisite legal and regulatory standards in the state.
The advancement of six new blockchain-centric committee bills in Wyoming comes after its Legislature already passed five such bills in May 2018.
The Crypto Space Is Paying Attention
Wyoming’s legislative moves have been a growing topic of discussion in the cryptocurrency ecosystem in 2018, and companies have been tracking the developments closely.
Take IOHK of Charles Hoskinson and Cardano (ADA) fame, for example. Hoskinson confirmed at the Malta Blockchain Summit in November that IOHK would be moving to Wyoming.
“We’re now a U.S. company,” he said.
It’s undoubtedly Wyoming’s increasingly favorable business conditions that have made the state attractive for IOHK and others like it.
“Zero corporate/personal income taxes, zero taxes on #cryptoassets + legal clarity = you’ll […] want to move or at least domicile your biz there,” Caitlin Long said on Twitter.
Indeed, bitcoiners want legal certainty, and it’s policymakers who can provide that. Zooming out, that dynamic has fueled political attention in the cryptocurrency space generally, e.g. around the recent elections of America’s first two pro-Bitcoin governors.
Such attention around policy and policymakers should only increase as more related legislation is hashed out in the years ahead.
What’s your take? Is the Wyoming blockchain pivot going to be fruitful? Let us know what you’d like to see from the state in the comments section below.
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