Colorado Governor Says State is Ready to Accept Crypto By Mid-2022

Earlier this week, ETHDenver, the world’s largest Web3 and blockchain conference kicked off, as the State of Colorado prepares to become the nation’s “first digital state.”

Each year, Colorado brings blockchain projects and companies from around the world to the city of Denver featuring a volume of hackathons, keynote speakers, moderated panels, and of course, networking opportunities galore for executives, players, and media.

Back for 2022, ETHDenver brings the most headlining issues facing Web3 and blockchain to the state of Colorado for the world to see.

Could DAO’s be recognized as legal entities?

This year’s conference will be one to remember as Colorado Governor Jared Polis prepares for his Friday keynote speech, welcoming the world of Web3, blockchain technology, and cryptocurrency to the State of Colorado.

In its move forward to becoming the nation’s “first digital state,” Colorado invites U.S. impact lawyer and attorney to the Colorado Supreme Court, Yev Muchnik, to speak on the ongoing legislative efforts that will eventually serve as the state’s framework for legitimizing this technology, as well as recognizing decentralized autonomous organizations, or DAO’s as legal entities.

Historically, Governor Polis has been a vocal advocate of cryptocurrency, dating back to his time as a Colorado congressman in 2014, becoming one of the first U.S. politicians to openly accept campaign donations in bitcoin.

Crypto to pay taxes

Last year, Gov. Polis outlined his vision for Colorado accepting crypto for taxes at Consensus 2021. In a recent interview, Polis revealed more behind his plan, stating that Colorado residents will be able to pay their state taxes in crypto by the middle of 2022.

“We expect by this summer to accept crypto for all of our state tax-related purposes,” he shared.

In a recent interview with CNBC, Polis said that Colorado is restricted in what assets it can hold, expressing the state’s desire to find companies who are able to handle the actual cryptocurrency transactions, so as to prevent any speculative risk the state could face in holding those funds.

Specifically, in accepting crypto for payments, Colorado would ultimately convert the funds back into U.S. dollars with the intermediary there helping to facilitate the conversion.

“Just like accepting a credit card, but with a much lower transaction cost than a credit card,” he told CNBC.

He added that the state eventually intends to apply the same opportunities for residents applying for their driver’s license, hunting license, and more.

Back in 2018, the State of Ohio was the first state to announce that business could use Bitcoin to pay taxes, but unfortunately, had a rough start and never took off, with the program being shut down. However, with ongoing proposals by Wyoming and Arizona that would allow both states to accept tax payments in the form of crypto seems promising.

Arizona’s proposal seeks to specifically recognize Bitcoin as the state’s legal tender, whereas Wyoming is opening its doors to currencies beyond Bitcoin, applying only to sales and use taxes. Undoubtedly, both proposals face political and legal backlash, despite Wyoming ahead in the race in its adoption of laws to help accommodate the mainstream adoption of crypto.

ETHDenver hosted a few days of pre-conference events as part of its BUIDL Week, where teams worked together to address state-level use cases for blockchain technology. The conference officially begins Thursday, February 17 at 8:00 A.M. MST and running through the evening of Sunday, February 20.

Be[In]Crypto will be on-site providing you real-time coverage from ETHDenver, highlighting the innovations across Web3 and cybersecurity.

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