JACKSON, Wyo. — At the 2024 Wyoming Blockchain Symposium that was held in Jackson from Aug. 19 to 22, Governor Mark Gordon announced that Wyoming is on track to become the first state to implement a policy-backed cryptocurrency.
According to Forbes, cryptocurrency is a digitized and encrypted medium of exchange that has no central authority managing or maintaining the value, meaning it’s immune to government intervention. Cryptocurrency is based on blockchain technology, which Forbes describes as similar to a checkbook that’s distributed across computers globally. Transactions get recorded in what’s known as “blocks,” which are then linked together on a “chain” of previous cryptocurrency transactions.
There are methods to validate each transaction online, and in exchange for validating transactions, new units of cryptocurrency can be released, or “mined.”
While cryptocurrency can be used to buy regular goods and services, Forbes says the current lack of key transaction policies is “a major drawback,” with no refund or cancellation policy.
In March 2023, Wyoming passed the Wyoming Stable Token Act to create a commission tasked with developing rules and regulations for a digital dollar “representative of and redeemable for one U.S. dollar held in trust by the state of Wyoming.” The Act states that this development includes policies around the overall number of Wyoming stable tokens to be issued, the means used to issue them and the maintenance, management and redemption of the stable tokens.
“I think it’s an opportunity for Wyoming to diversify, move our country forward and be able to domesticate something that is happening on a global scale.”
Governor Mark Gordon
“I think the world is moving very rapidly to digital assets,” Gordon said at the Symposium. “The technology is changing on all levels, but we want to make sure in Wyoming it’s transparent, that it’s well done with good regulation…I think it’s an opportunity for Wyoming to diversify, move our country forward and be able to domesticate something that is happening on a global scale.”
According to Gordon, Wyoming anticipates the launch of the stable token to happen in the first quarter of 2025. He said at the Symposium that the aim is to give individuals and businesses a faster, cheaper way to engage in transactions, and to combat the reluctance of the Federal Reserve to create a central bank digital currency (CBDC) at the national level.
“Washington’s being a little bit stodgy, which is why Wyoming, being a nimble and entrepreneurial state, can make a difference.”
Governor Mark Gordon
“It is clear to me that digital assets are going to have a future,” Gordon told CNBC at the Symposium. “The U.S. has to address this issue. Washington’s being a little bit stodgy, which is why Wyoming, being a nimble and entrepreneurial state, can make a difference.”
Flavia Naves, a commissioner at the Wyoming Stable Token Commission, recently told CNBC that the vision for the Wyoming stable token is that someone can walk into Cowboy Coffee in Jackson and use it to buy a latte.
Pete MacIlwaine, co-owner of Cowboy Coffee Co., tells Buckrail that his business would be open to that idea.
“If the state of Wyoming thinks that it could be a good resource, of course we’d get behind the state as well,” MacIlwaine says. “We use contactless payment and it’s pretty efficient, fast and useful. I imagine it would be something similar to that. If it was cheaper or had no processing fees, and was as good as any dollar, I think we’d be all for it.”
