Colorado Announces Blockchain Council Final Report to the Community

The Colorado Council for the Advancement of Blockchain Technology was created and appointed by Governor John Hickenlooper and continued under current Governor Jared Polis to assist the state in meeting the challenge and promise of blockchain. This includes work to provide a legal framework to support the use of the technology, finding areas in which it has and can be utilized, and generally supporting innovation in this technology space.

The Council’s Report on Blockchain provides some background on the technology itself, as well as addressing problems and potential solutions pertaining to the technology. The Council identified the following as issues to be addressed:

• Definition of Tokens
• Securities
• Taxation
• Banking Regulation / Money Transmission
• Banking Services
• Trust / Custody
• General Regulatory Environment
• Debt Payments

To address the areas, the Council noted several possible pathways that can be taken. One means is various legislation to both encourage blockchain innovation while also providing regulatory clarity around the use of the technology. Other Council priorities and recommendations moving forward include a Voting Pilot, a FinTech (financial technology) sandbox, allowing stakeholders to collaborate, and a Blockchain Court initiative, which would train judges to better adjudicate issues related to the technology.

Colorado has been somewhat of a hotbed for Blockchain technology as of late. In May 2019, the Governor’s Office of Information Technology announced the appointment of the first ever State Blockchain Solutions Architect, who leads the state’s Blockchain program to explore ways in which it can be used in government. In the 2019 Legislative Session, the Colorado General Assembly passed a bill that would direct the State Commissioner of Agriculture to convene an advisory group to study the potential uses of Blockchain. Additionally, the city of Denver recently used a Blockchain-based app to allow overseas voters to cast their ballots for local elections in May. Although there are several other states actively considering and exploring the use of Blockchain in government, such as Connecticut, Ohio, and West Virginia, Governor Polis’s goal of establishing Colorado as a hub of blockchain innovation may make the state one to watch for emerging trends and developments for the technology in the coming years.

Source: Colorado Governor’s Office of Information Technology