Crypto Enthusiasts and government officials are not natural allies, at least not outside of Miami. And yet Colorado Governor Jared Polis received a warm welcome when he took the stage at the ETHdenver conference last week to present his vision for making Colorado the “first digital state.”
That is because he came to bring good news for the crypto believers. Polis, a libertarian-oriented Democrat who made a fortune as an internet entrepreneur in the 1990s, has high hopes for blockchain technology. “Most people don’t trust big companies or big governments, and that’s what blockchain allows us to solve for,” he declared to the applause of the ETHdenver crowd. “We see it as a critical part of Colorado’s overall innovation ecosystem.” To that end, Polis announced, the state will soon be the first to make residents pay income taxes and other fees using cryptocurrency, though the money will be converted into good old US dollars before ending up in the treasury.
Polis also hooked up with Colorado’s co-op statutes, which, he said, make the state especially welcoming to “decentralized autonomous organizations,” or DAOs, a form of blockchain-based co-op. And he discussed a project that aims to move the cattle branding system from the state to the blockchain.
Wait – blockchain? Cows? While Polis found a purchase among ETHdenver supporters, his presentation raised more questions than it answered. This week, the governor spoke to WIRED about his plan to make Colorado, including livestock, the most blockchain-friendly state in the union.
WIRED: How would you explain to someone who doesn’t know much about blockchain yet why you think it’s an important technology?
Jared Polis: A secure, distributed ledger technology is very attractive compared to the old, centralized database systems for a number of reasons. One is privacy and distributed control over your own information. Another is security, because if you have a centralized system, it can always be vulnerable, no matter how much protection you have, in ways that a distributed system inherently isn’t. Third, it can be more egalitarian. And fourth, it may be more welcoming to disruption and startups. If you have legacy systems, whether corporate or government, they can have an anticompetitive effect.
What does all this have to do with livestock brands?
Livestock brands are exactly what you think they are. It’s a distinctive logo, which ranchers have sometimes passed down their families, that’s placed on livestock raised in Colorado — and other states with livestock have similar systems — and it’s added to a registry. You apply for your trademark and there are tens of thousands of trademarks, many of which are no longer used, but you cannot use one that someone else is using. The current system for that in Colorado and other states is a centralized database, a centralized ledger.
I’m from New Jersey, so just to make sure I’m with you, the point is if my cow strays or gets stolen, we’ll know who owns it.
Absolute. They stray and get stolen and then you undeniably know whose it is; it is registered. It is also used to catch and prosecute cattle thieves who steal cattle. Thus, it is used to prevent both theft and loss of livestock, which is a multi-billion dollar industry in the state of Colorado.
