Colorado Governor Jared Polis remained optimistic with regards to his crypto proposal despite the current market drawdown. The entrepreneur cum politician spoke at a National Governors Association meeting on 29 January 2022 where he declared his plan to accept state tax payments in Bitcoin and other digital currencies would go ahead irrespective of the present crypto market scenario.
Under the proposal put forward by Polis, the state would immediately convert any payments from cryptocurrencies into dollars and wouldn’t hold them for any length of time. Reading along the same lines, he stated,
“The state would not hold any assets in crypto, those would be instantly converted back into dollars when the transaction occurred. The government would not be interested in participating in the speculative aspects positive or negative. We would simply use it as a means of exchange for purposes of payment.”
In addition to that, the politician drew a parallel comparison to international entities that accept payments in foreign currencies, saying that the dollar fluctuates in value.
Polis has long been known as a staunch supporter of cryptocurrency. In fact, he was the first politician to legally accept bitcoin in campaign donations and has argued previously with US Senator Joe Manchin over cryptocurrencies.
Colorado- hub of blockchain innovation in the United States
Joe Manchin wrote a letter in 2014 describing bitcoin as “suspect, if not outright detrimental” and called on federal regulators to ban its use before Americans get left “holding the bag on a valueless currency.” Polis responded by replacing all the instances of BTC in the note with “dollar bills” in a satirical call to ban the fiat currency.
In a virtual conference held last year, the pro-bitcoin congressman told that he wanted his state to be the first to allow residents to pay state taxes with cryptocurrencies.
Elaborating on his vision, Polis added that Colorado would be the hub for blockchain innovation in the United States, attracting investments and good jobs and innovators in infrastructure, digital identity, and individual data security in the private and public sectors.
Having said that a Colorado Democrat Rep. Diana DeGette in a recently held U.S. House subcommittee hearing said in her opening statement that blockchain technology has promising applications but mining’s energy efficiency and carbon emissions need to be at forefront of any discussion about crypto.