While the US State of Ohio may have become the first US state to accept cryptocurrencies for tax payments, New York is the first state to form a special cryptocurrency task force that will study how to define, user and regulate digital coins in the most suitable way.
New York State Governor, Mr. Andrew Cuomo, has already signed The Digital Currency Study Bill into a fully-fledged law, according to RTT News. According to Clyde Vanel, a New York-based lawmaker, Clyde Vanel, the first reports of the task force team are to be submitted by the middle of December of 2020.
Vanel was the one who actually proposed the formation of the cryptocurrency task force in the end of 2017, with the bill to be introduced in beginning of 2019.
The task force will consist of a diverse group of people, such as institutional and individual investors, academicians, technologists and consumers. The major task of the group is to report on the mechanism, applications and essence of digital currencies and blockchain technology.
New York is actually working very hard towards properly understanding and regulating the crypto space. One example of that effort was the fact that New York became the first state to act after certain Bitcoin exchanges were hacked. In 2015, lawmakers put into effect the BitLicense in order to protect New Yorkers from any cryptocurrency “mischiefs” and incident that may occur on cryptocurrency exchanges.
In addition to New York, many other states, are trying to establish blockchain / cryptocurrency working groups that will help the states better understand cryptocurrencies and blockchain.