During a speech at ETHDenver, which has been going for more than 20 years, was preaching to the choir.
“This is, without a doubt, the most fun thing I get to do this month,” said Polis. Then he went on to jab both Republicans and Democrats. Republicans tell people not to trust government and to trust big corporations, he suggested, while Democrats tell people not to trust big corporations and to put all of their faith in government.
Pols said that most people don’t trust big businesses or the government. “And that’s what blockchain can help us with. We have faith in ourselves.”
Short for Ethereum Denver, which is a nod to the open-source blockchain Ethereum. If you’re new to this kind of technology, here’s a quick lesson.
If you look up blockchain on Investopedia, it’s a “distributed database that is shared by all the nodes of a computer network.” It’s a new thing about a blockchain because it makes people trust each other without needing a trusted third party to do it.
The most common use of the new blockchain technology is in the form of cryptocurrencies, which are virtual currencies that aren’t controlled by a single person or group, like hard currencies like the U.S. dollar.
They’ve become very popular. Some people have made a lot of money by investing in cryptocurencies like Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency used on the Ethereum platform, called Ether. But some people have lost a lot of money investing in cryptocurrencies: It’s a risky, risky area.
Standing The crowd at the headquarters for ETHDenver was full, but Polis was able to win them over with ease. Somebody said to his friend, “I like this guy.” Pols, who made a lot of money with technology, was talking in his own language, the language of crypto and blockchain.
He told the crowd that when he was in Congress, he started the Blockchain Caucus, which now has 37 members. Polis also said that a U.S. senator wrote a letter arguing that cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, should be banned because they can be used by criminal groups without law enforcement noticing them, which is why they should be.
I took his letter and made it “ban cash,” said Polis to applause, noting that money can be used by criminal groups to fund their operations.
He spent most of the rest of his time on stage talking about the work that his government has done in the crypto world. When Thaddeus Batt was hired in 2019, “Our state was the very first one to hire a chief blockchain architect.” “We see blockchain as an important part of Colorado’s innovation ecosystem.”
That same year, Colorado Gov. Polis signed the Digital Token Act into law, which some crypto enthusiasts say was a big factor in the growth of the industry in the state.
Polis, a libertarian-minded Democrat, didn’t talk about the negative aspects of cryptocurrency, like how volatile cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin can be or how mining for cryptocurrency can harm the environment. Instead, his talk was about crypto technology, which some people think will replace paper money.
Thousands of people have come to the multi-day conference at the Sports Castle and other places in Denver, such as the nearby Art Hotel and Temple. There has also been a much bigger online audience. But the event started out small.
In Denver, Colorado, a decade ago, people who were interested in crypto started meeting up and talking about blockchain at these meet-ups. In 2017, those meetups were turned into the ETHDenver conference, which is now known around the world. This year’s event includes a huge NFT art gallery made by 126 artists from 15 countries.
Other state officials joined in on the fun at an ETHDenver conference with the Colorado Jam Incubator, which lets tech geeks work on a wide range of problems. In the last few days, one group has been working on using blockchain technology to keep track of the branding of livestock in the Colorado farming industry. A hot metal branding of a cow’s butt is, in fact, real.
“When a cow wanders off and gets stolen, you want to know whose cow it is,” Polis explained.
Big news from Colorado Gov. Polis came out on stage. He said that Colorado would be the first place to accept cryptocurrency for state taxes and fees.
“We won’t be holding any assets in that form, but we will have a layer that allows for payment in those forms and then conversion into the units that we use, which is dollars,” Polis said, predicting that the program will be up and running this summer. While it ight have just a marginal impact on Coloradans doing their taxes in the beginning, the move is “important symbolically to show that we are a crypto-forward state,” Polis contended.
Polis also said that he wants Colorado to become “Delaware for co-ops.” If you are an American company, Delaware is known as a safe place where you can set up business there without having to set up shop there. Companies that work with cryptocurrency and blockchain often set up their businesses with employee and community ownership in mind, which is why Colorado, which wants to be known as a leader in crypto, wants to be known as the Mecca of co-ops, Gov. John Hickenlooper said.
Following his speech, other people kept up with that theme. “Colorado is going to be the Silicon Valley of Web3,” Kent Barton, a co-founder of ETHDenver, said at a later panel. He was referring to a new version of the World Wide Web that would be decentralised through the use of blockchain technology.
“I honestly see this event within three to five years taking place in Mile High Stadium. I’m not being facetious or fucking around,” Barton promised. “In five years, we’re going to be doing this in sports arenas in a non-hypey and non-douchey way.”
Disclaimer: These are the writer’s opinions and should not be considered investment advice. Readers should do their own research.
