- Crypto-friendly state Wyoming passes laws on private keys.
- The Private keys law comes with a minor exception.
- This move by Wyoming could be a great advantage for the crypto space.
The lawmakers in Wyoming have made an enormous decision to pass a bill that protects individuals in the state from any threats of force to divulge their private, with a limited exception.
All that is left is for the governor of the state of Wyoming, Mark Gordon, to sign the bill so it can go into effect from July 1st of this year. The account is to be passed with only minor exceptions. In a vote of 41-13 in the House of Representatives of Wyoming, the bill received approval just a day after it received 31-0 from the senate of the state of Wyoming.
The primary purpose of the law is to ensure that no individual is ever compelled to give away a private key or to allow their private key to be known to any other person through force, regardless of if the person is in any criminal, civil, legislative or administrative proceedings in Wyoming. In addition, the law includes that any other private keys attached to the digital identity, rights, or interests of the individual are also not subject to forced disclosure.
However, the exception in the law involves a public key being unavailable or not being used to disclose details of the digital assets, interests, rights, or digital identity necessary. Another thing included in the law is that it will not be used as an excuse to stop one from being compelled to produce, sell, convey, transfer, or disclose digital assets, digital identity, and other interests necessary, which a private key could also be used to provide access.
The state of Wyoming also went ahead in a report to disclose that the new law W.S 34-29-107 would be titled “Production of Private keys; Prohibition.” Reportedly, the bill has been in the works in Wyoming since early September 2019, even before the pandemic when crypto saw a considerable surge. Wyoming is also known as one of the most friendly crypto states in the United States.
Wyoming has a reputation as the first state in the United States to declare a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) as a limited liability company back in July 2021 and has also been in the news for considering a state-issued Stablecoin around February 2022, has however not made much progress since then but given how the crypto space has been since the second half of last year, and it is not a shocking development.
Conclusion
The passing of this bill is an excellent advantage to the crypto space; if the bill’s emergence goes smoothly, it may push other states to consider making this a priority.
In addition, this could push Wyoming into looking into its plans to create a state-issued stablecoin once again.
