Luke Parker, 10 Jun 2017 - Bitcoin Mining, Funding, Usa
In the first-ever reported case of a US State funding what looks to be a Bitcoin mining operation, Montana’s Governor recently announced that $416,000 was awarded to a “data center that provides blockchain security services for the bitcoin network.”
Although Montana is the first state to fund a Bitcoin company, a few other States have tried or run initiatives and programs to boost blockchain technology use. The first attempt was in 2015, when New Jersey attempted to launch the ambitious “Digital Currency Jobs Creation Act,” which was proposed to give Bitcoin and other digital currency businesses a tax break and attract them to the state. The program was formed in the wake of the infamous BitLicense across the river in New York. However, the bill has been introduced to the
NJ Senate several times and failed to gain any traction.
Delaware also drafted a bill in 2015, which has passed the Senate but is being held up by the state’s legal review process. The state a popular destination for business incorporation, and wants to use a blockchain as the primary means to create and manage corporate records. The bill is expected to be enacted sometime this year.
In the meantime, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation announced the Illinois Blockchain Initiative in November. The initiative was created to investigate the benefits of Blockchains used at the state level. Secretary Bryan Schneider states that his department “would like to educate ourselves on the technology as well as its societal, economic and legal implications.” Learning about the technology before regulating it stated goal.
On the federal level, spending towards blockchain research has been an order of magnitude larger. In July 2015, the US National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded US$3 million to the “Initiative for Cryptocurrency and Contracts” (IC3). The three-University initiative consists of a team from Cornell, the University of Maryland, and UC Berkeley. Focusing on smart contracts and developing “new cryptocurrency systems that address pain points attributed to Bitcoin,” the program is also helping to “establish cryptocurrency as a prominent research area, and make a big impact in shaping the future of financial transactions and e-commerce,” according to the principal investigator, Elane Shi.