Courtesy Andrew Rossow
Happy April 1! While this may sound like an April Fool's prank, Colorado isn't joking: With cryptocurrencies booming and blockchain technology becoming more widely accepted, the“We’ve got an open, hospitable environment. We’ve got more than a dozen blockchain tech companies located in the state right now,” says Thaddeus Batt, who in 2019 was hired as the state’s chief blockchain architect.
“First we’ll do a pilot with the taxes, and then we’ll roll it out for more and more types of transactions so that it is a readily available form of payment for people,” says Mark Ferrandino, executive director of the. “I think it’s very much sending a strong message of how we believe in the technology as a state and the importance of how we see this as a future of how things are moving forward.”
Colorado's effort to establish itself as a crypto and blockchain center is not the first time that the state has pitched itself as the capital of a certain industry. While some of those attempts have succeeded, others have flopped big-time. Here's a look at a few booms...and busts.Starting in the 1870s, a carnation industry began to blossom in Colorado.
By the second half of the twentieth century, though, carnation producers in foreign countries had chipped away at the Colorado industry's control of the market share."When they’re exported much more cheaply than they can be grown and raised here, the markets for carnations collapsed," Noel notes.Metro Denver was once the world's capital for cable television.
If he were still alive, Meyer Blinder, the penny stock king, would have a field day with cryptocurrency.
Careful. A friend’s wallet was hacked and everything’s gone. No recourse.