Now it’s up to Wyoming’s governor to put his final stamp of approval on the landmark bill.
The US state of Wyoming has passed a bill that protects its citizens from unlocking their privacy, except for that. Now that it has been approved by the state Senate and the House of Representatives, it just needs to be signed by the Governor for it to take effect.
The bill states, “No person shall be compelled to produce a private key or to make a private key known to another person in any civil, criminal, administrative, legislative or other proceeding in this country relating to digital assets, digital identity. or other interests or rights for private key access unless the public key is not available or cannot reveal the required information about the digital asset, digital identity or other interests or rights.
It doesn’t specify if it’s just for Bitcoin keys, so it would also apply to private keys used as decentralized identities, or other use cases. Wyoming has been in the spotlight regarding Bitcoin adoption in the US for some time, in part due to Senator Cynthia Lummis’ support of Bitcoin and her push for regulation in the state.
Christopher Allen, internet cryptography pioneer and executive director of Blockchain Commons who previously wrote for Bitcoin Magazine on the importance of protecting private key sovereignty, explains why Wyoming has been a groundbreaking state for this type of legislation.
“[Wyoming] has a long tradition of ‘good fences for good neighbors’… and as a small country has a true ‘citizen’ legislature…. they resonate well with the concept of “Self-Sovereignty” in bitcoin and digital identity,” Allen told Bitcoin Magazine.
If approved by the governor, the bill will take effect on July 1, 2023.