Although Dickens County plunged into the universe of cryptocurrency mining in a big way earlier this month, there’s more to blockchain technology than Bitcoin, according to county judge Kevin Brendle.
The judge was invited to attend the first-ever Texas Blockchain Summit, a series of get-to-know-you chats, social gatherings and panels wth experts “discussing the policy & economics of protocol revolutions” held Oct. 8 at the AT&T Hotel and Conference Center in Austin.
An estimated 600 delegates with diverse missions participated, including one organization, according to Brendle, that’s interested in using blockchain transactions to secure information about human egg storage.
Argo Blockchain CEO Peter Wall, who led his company’s rollout event in Spur Oct. 4, presented at a Friday afternoon panel on “Mining Bitcoin in Texas” moderated by Lee Bratcher, president of the Texas Blockchain Council.
“Texas is a key state because of its robust economy,” said Brendle. Among the blockchain community, he said, participants are drawn by what he described as a “Texas ethos”—limited government and limited regulation.
Texas has already embraced blockchain technology and the currencies that use it.
In an Oct. 2 story Forbes. com noted that Texas House Bills 1576 and 4474 took effect on Sept. 1, establishing a working group on blockchain technology and that updating the Uniform Commercial Code to recognize cryptocurrency. With these moves, Texas “becomes the latest state — along with Rhode Island and Wyoming — to do so. Meanwhile, the Commissioner of the Texas Department of Banking issued a letter authorizing all Texas state-chartered banks to custody cryptocurrency.”
Other Texas Blockchain Summit events included keynote addresses by Nik Bhatia(researcher, professor of finance and business economics at the University of Southern California) and SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce; fireside chats with Senator Ted Cruz, with Texas state representatives Tan Parker and Gio Capriglione, and with Wyoming sena-tor Cynthia Lummis; and panels on “Digital Assets Policies in the United States,” “Blockchain and Digital Identity in Government” and “Geopolitics of Bitcoin: Implications for US Sovereignty & National Security.”
“Our mission is to promote blockchain technology initiatives that drive growth and benefit the citizens of Texas,” reads the statement of the Texas Blockchain Council on its website. “We exist to amalgamate the influence of our members, to advocate for blockchain-centric public policy initiatives, to educate members of government about the benefits of blockchain technology, and to provide subject matter expertise on topics related to blockchain and distributed ledger technology.”
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