It is now up to the Wyoming governor to put the final stamp of approval on the landmark bill.
The US state of Wyoming has passed a bill that protects its citizens from having to reveal their private keys, with one singular exception. Having passed the state Senate and the House of Representatives, it now simply needs to be signed by the Governor to take effect.
He bill states that, “No person shall be compelled to produce a private key or disclose a private key to another person in any civil, criminal, administrative, legislative, or other proceeding in this state involving a digital asset, identity digital or other interest or right to which the private key provides access unless a public key is not available or unable to reveal the required information regarding the digital asset, digital identity or other interest or right”.
You don’t specify that it would be for Bitcoin keys only, so it would also apply to private keys used as decentralized identities or any other use case. Wyoming has been in the spotlight regarding Bitcoin adoption in the US for some time, in part due to Senator Cynthia Lummis’ fervent support of Bitcoin and the push for regulation within the country.
Christopher Allen, internet cryptography pioneer and CEO of Blockchain Commons, who previously wrote for Bitcoin Magazine about the importance of protecting private key sovereignty, outlined why Wyoming has been a groundbreaking state for this type of legislature.
“(Wyoming) has a long tradition of ‘good fences for good neighbors’…and as a small state it has a true ‘citizens’ legislature…they resonate well with the concept of ‘self-sovereignty’ in bitcoin and identity digital,” Allen told Bitcoin Magazine.
If approved by the Governor, the bill would take effect on July 1, 2023.
