Arizona Opens Another Crypto-Door: Do They Have the Right Keys?
| Updatedby Maria Konash · 4 min read
While Arizona moves on being an example of crypto-legislation development, OPEN Platform works to address cocurrent hands-on issues.
Arizona has been serving as a good example of legislative control implementation in the field of cryptos. Last year, it passed HB 2417, which recognizes the legality of blockchain signatures and SmartContracts, while last month it passed HB 2603 that permits corporations to utilize distributed ledgers.
Bill SB 1901, allowing residents to settle tax debts with the state via cryptocurrencies, passed a vote by The Rules Committee on April 23, and will now move to the House floor for a final vote. The bill had been already cleared by The House Ways & Means Committee as well as the Arizona State Senate back in February, having undergone several revisions along the way. To recap, recent revisions to SB 1901 clarified that the state government is required to convert all crypto-payments to USD at the prevailing rate upon receipt, and they widened the number of cryptocurrencies that can be utilized to settle tax debt to include “any cryptocurrency.”
Several other states have either passed various laws dealing with cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, or they are currently drafting bills along those same lines. As more consumers invest and utilize cryptocurrencies, the more businesses and states want to move in the direction of accepting crypto as a viable payment option.
But Huge Questions Remain to be Answered
Such as… how is Arizona, and the other states/businesses, going to implement this in a way that is balanced and fair for all customers, no matter which cryptocurrency they wish to use?
Is Arizona going to inadvertently show preference for one over another? – the ‘big’ names in the market may be ‘winning’ now, but the future of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies in general is far from decided. What is on top today could very well disappear tomorrow, and two months from now there could be hundreds of new blockchain projects with leading tokens of their own.
Are they going to create an entirely new position and hire/train someone to develop and maintain the payment gateway? Do they even realize the current complexities of taking this from paper to implementation and that it isn’t simply a matter of getting a wallet or Bitcoin address? How will they handle transactions from customers wishing to pay in more than one cryptocurrency or combining them with fiat payments? Do they understand the risks involved in this undertaking?
The problem is that there’s no turnkey solution for this. They are going to have to spend valuable tax dollars to pay someone to develop a customized payment gateway specifically for their needs. Right? Well that’s not entirely accurate… Not anymore anyway.
Currently, anyone wishing to accept cryptocurrencies, whether businesses, application developers, or state governments, have to design gateways around their existing systems. As you can imagine, this can be time consuming and extremely costly. Not to mention a huge headache for developers.
Help on the Horizon
OPEN Platform is set to launch into developer beta in a few weeks. In short, OPEN provides developers with the exact components needed to integrate crypto payments into their existing structure so that they can accept the encrypted payment data with various currencies. This includes ‘mixing and matching’ and splitting payments among multiple denominations as well as being able to be deployed on any blockchain.
NEO Global Capital recently partnered with OPEN and this gave OPEN an even stronger advantage as they move forward. The partnership with NGC provides them with new decentralized database protocols, highly scalable blockchains that have huge potential for OPEN integration, and next-gen market exchanges. The symbiotic relationship also gives NEO’s DApps the full ability to accept billions of dollars in cryptocurrencies while providing them with a secure & efficient developer infrastructure upon which to design new applications.
Another huge benefit of the project is that one doesn’t need to have deep blockchain knowledge to use the platform – Arizona (and everyone else) can have the OPEN platform designed and deployed today for Ethereum or any of the current supported blockchains. The number of the supported blockchains, meanwhile, is actively growing, as OPEN is working on their partnership development with other blockchains and corporations. All this, indeed, shows quite impressive potential, the platform could bring to the industry.
