Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Friday 25 May 2018

Wyoming courts tech behind cryptocurrency to entice business

By MEAD GRUVER "some of the craziness we
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — see in the cryptocurrency
Block Chain Gang LLC, world right now," including
Crypto Cowboy, Some- the hype and speculation
thing Something Block- surrounding Bitcoin.
chain LLC: Based on the Neither is the founder of
names of dozens of new Something Something
companies registering to Blockchain, registered
set up shop in Wyoming, March 20, which despite
the state's effort to lure the its name has nothing to
latest tech craze appears do with blockchain. Seat-
to be paying off. tle-based tech consultant
Proponents say block- Evan Zlotnick said he set
chain — the ledger where up the corporation to bill
transactions of digital cur- clients.
rencies, like bitcoin, are "I picked the name as a joke
recorded — could be the as I am pretty negative on
kick in the pants Wyoming blockchain and cryptocur-
needs to attract tech busi- rency. It seems like nothing
nesses and diversify its but hype," Zlotnick wrote
economy beyond fossil fu- via LinkedIn messaging.
els. In Cheyenne, cheap elec-
As for how many of these tricity and cool weather
new businesses will get off would seem ideal for bit-
the ground in Wyoming or coin mining, the complex
anywhere else, time will tell. computations on ware-
So far, only a small fraction houses of servers that make
of them exist as more than the cryptocurrency work in
electronic paperwork. exchange for a share of its
Wyoming is willing to find value. The city is home to
out. In March, Gov. Matt a small tech business park
Mead signed four block- with a Microsoft data cen-
chain-friendly bills that ter and supercomputer
arguably make the least- dedicated to earth scienc-
populated state friendlier In this March 8, 2018 photo Wyoming state Rep. Tyler Lindholm poses next to computer servers in es.
to the technology than any an office building in Cheyenne, Wyo. But so far at least, bitcoin
other. Associated Press miners are setting up in
One new law exempts cer- Montana, not Wyoming.
tain types of blockchain shareholders. The other Wyoming: Under the U.S. financial sector research And Cheyenne has a long
tokens, or cryptocurrencies two facilitate cryptocur- Constitution's supremacy provider Autonomous Re- way to go to catch up to
issued to people who invest rency trading and exempt clause, blockchain tokens search. the Rocky Mountain re-
in tech startups, from state cryptocurrency from prop- sooner or later are likely to Meanwhile, the number of gion's undisputed tech
securities laws. erty tax — a measure more be regulated by federal businesses registered in Wy- capital, Denver, where the
Another allows businesses symbolic than anything law and the U.S. Securities oming with "blockchain" or economy is booming and
incorporated in Wyoming because Wyoming doesn't and Exchange Commis- "crypto" in their names has construction cranes bristle
to use blockchain for re- have property taxes. sion, which take prece- surged from 17 to over 145 the skyline.
cord-keeping, promising "If you can grab that tiger dence over state securities since late last year, when A few bitcoin miners have
easier and more accurate by the tail, your advantage laws and regulations. advocates began pushing asked about Wyoming's
files on transactions and over other states is tremen- "It's taking a sort of pro-busi- for the state to pass block- new blockchain laws, but
dous," said state Rep. Tyler ness stance, which is great chain-friendly legislation. nothing major has come of
Lindholm, a Republican in some respects," Clyde One new Wyoming busi- the legislation just yet, said
rancher and electrician Tinnen, a blockchain attor- ness, Wyoming Blockchain Ron Gullberg, business de-
who sponsored the bills. ney with the Withers Berg- Technologies LLC, regis- velopment director for the
The stakes are high as Wy- man law firm in New York, tered March 5, seeks to Wyoming Business Council,
oming struggles with low said of the state incentives. help cities and towns use the state's economic de-
prices for oil and natural "The tricky part is that as blockchain for records and velopment agency.
gas and weak demand a result of the supremacy collecting sales taxes, said "There could be opportuni-
for coal. The fossil fuels ac- clause, it may not be as company founder Joseph ties for developers to come
count for 20 percent of beneficial as they hope." Coyne. "It will primarily be to Wyoming. So we're do-
Wyoming's economy, more In February, SEC Chairman an educational effort ini- ing a lot of research and a
than any other state, and Jay Clayton told a U.S. Sen- tially. It will shift into improv- lot networking and study-
the industry's recent weak- ate committee that in his ing cybersecurity, and then ing up on it," Gullberg said.
ness has saddled the state opinion, blockchain tokens we'll start exploring actual Still, optimism about block-
with a $500 million deficit. issued to launch a compa- use cases," Coyne said. "Ul- chain abounds.
Other states hoping to ny during what's called an timately we think the real "The thing that I'm excited
lure tech companies with initial coin offering in most value will be in the collec- about is that Wyoming is
blockchain-friendly laws in- cases appear to qualify as tion and distribution of mu- willing to jump in and ex-
clude Arizona and Tennes- securities. nicipal revenues." periment, knowing full well
see, which also will now let Initial coin offerings raised Coyne works from home on we have a great deal of
businesses use blockchain more than $4 billion world- the Wyoming plains near additional work to do," said
for record-keeping. wide in 2017, up 18-fold the Nebraska and Colo- Coyne. "That includes ap-
One potential problem in from 2016, according to rado lines. He's no fan of propriate regulation."q