Oklahoma Setting up for a Crypto Future

Oklahoma’s Senator Nathan Dahm has drafted a new crypto positive bill which is to be introduced on the third of February, 2020. The bill contains a lot of crypto positive implications and can be considered a strong determining factor for the future of cryptocurrency in the state.

One of the most important parts of the bills will change the law to incorporate a new kind of financial institution that will deal exclusively with cryptocurrency. From the initial looks of it, it seems that some sort of state-run crypto bank is being planned.

However, there is a long way before anything comes from this bill, as the law will become effective starting November 1st, 2020. At the same time, the law mandates that the implementation strategy and the plans for implementing the section need to be provided by the 1st of July, 2021.

The discrepancy in time between incorporation and actual reporting leaves us wondering how well the public will be informed about the establishment of this state-run financial institution.

According to the bill, the purpose of the institution will be to provide financial and technological services for blockchain and virtual currency innovators and developers in the state. The institution will also follow all KYC and AML procedures and its establishment will be a cooperative effort between the State Banking Department and the Oklahoma Department of Commerce.

Both institutions will coordinate and develop plans, propose legislative changes and establish the strategy required to create the third institution. The bill doesn’t refer to the institution like a bank in any way, but rather a “state-chartered financial institution”.

Considering that it will follow all of the necessary money transfer processes, it will most definitely provide transaction services and we suspect that it will even hold state-owned crypto assets.

This type of institution regardless of the vagueness in which it will operate will place Oklahoma on the next level compared to other states, out of which only a few have made attempts to embrace blockchain technology.