The Democratic candidate for governor of Colorado, U.S[1] Representative Jared Polis, has added a blockchain[2] policy to the list of issues of his gubernatorial campaign this year, according to an announcement[3] on Polis’ website.
Having set a goal to establish Colorado as a “national hub for blockchain innovation in business and government,” Polis added a set of blockchain-related proposals to his gubernatorial platform on Wednesday, Aug. 8.
In his campaign, Polis advocates for implementing five blockchain-related initiatives, such as developing cybersecurity infrastructure to ensure the integrity of elections, and building a statewide ‘safe harbor’ to exempt digital currencies[4] from state money transmission laws.
Polis also advocates for blockchain-based solutions in the state’s energy[5] grid, the reduction of government bureaucracy while improving government[6] services, and conducting a survey on further blockchain applications.
Following in the footsteps of Wyoming[7], which created[8] a new class of assets in defining cryptocurrency as “Utility Tokens,” Polis says on his website that he will “work to establish legislation that protects ‘open blockchain tokens’ or cryptocurrencies that are exchangeable for goods and services.”
Some other U.S. states have already embraced distributed ledger technology. In June, Connecticut governor Dannel Malloy signed[9] SB 443 into law, which establishes a blockchain working group to study the technology in order to make Connecticut “a leader in blockchain technology.” In March, the governor of Tennessee signed[10] a bill recognizing the legal authority of blockchain and smart contracts[11] for electronic transactions[12].
Polis, who is currently serving in the House of Representatives, belongs[13]
