As Wyoming progresses toward rolling out the nation’s first state-backed cryptocurrency, possibly as soon as this year, the state has begun testing out practical uses for the Wyoming Stable Token could be used.
The latest test, state officials say, proves that the stable token system could someday help residents and businesses when disasters like wildfires or floods strike.
The state partnered with a blockchain startup last week to test how the stable token could be used to pay government contractors faster.
State law gives agencies up to 45 days to pay private contractors for jobs, a period of time that typically involves a lot of government review and red tape — bureaucracy moving at anything but light speed.
Working with Hashfire, a tech firm incorporated in Wyoming that advertises itself as a company that turns “agreements into bullet proof, instantly financeable digital assets,” state officials tested running vendor agreements through a custom processing system that can cut a check in the form of a stable token within seconds.
The processing system quickly authenticated the transaction, making sure the payment adhered to stipulations laid out in a vendor agreement while also ensuring that the recipient had everything in order.
That process now might take days.
“From 45 days to a few seconds — that’s 99.99995% faster,” Avalanche, the blockchain on which the test ran, wrote on X. “Wyoming just tested real-time contractor payments using its state-issued stablecoin, WYST, using @hashfirexyz on Avalanche.”
Disaster Dollars
Why this is important to Wyomingites is that it could allow government money to be disbursed instantaneously to first responders who need supplies during a natural disaster.
It could help pay linemen who come from other states to help fix downed power lines after a historic storm. It also could provide people with immediate emergency money if they live in a disaster zone.
“The benefit of this is really obvious,” John Belitsky, Hashfire founder and chief executive, told Cowboy State Daily. “You don't want your first responders running out of gas because they're in a cash crunch and they couldn't top off the tank on the way over to put out a forest fire.
“This is the kind of thing that would immediately make those funds available.”
Invoices that would typically float from computer screen to computer screen or desk to desk would get checked via a custom-made documentation authentication system and get “automatically settled in less than a couple of seconds,” Belitsky said.
“It just goes directly into their wallet,” he said. “My goal with the pilot was to demonstrate to Wyoming, the state where it came from, how this immediately benefits Wyoming, not just the rest of the world and not just people who are working on the blockchain.”
The process is also secure with safety checks written in to verify money is going toward the right purpose and the right people — all of which can be programmed in and customized depending on whatever criteria is required by the state for disbursement.
Endless Possibilities
“Nobody has to double-check,” Belitsky said. “Nobody has to call [up and ask], is this actually you? Your address is tied to the agreement.
“All these things check out, otherwise the agreement doesn't process, and then every single approval is recorded on its path from the state to the vendor to the final payment of that invoice so that you have 100% accountability for the contracts.”
U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, who has been leading the effort on Capitol Hill to get federal approval for Wyoming’s stable token system, said in a statement that the test was just a start to the endless ways Wyomingites will benefit from digital currency.
“Wyoming has always been at the forefront of blockchain innovation,” Lummis said. “It’s exciting to see the Cowboy State continue to be among the first to harness our digital economy’s untapped potential by offering stablecoin payments to government contractors.”
Wyoming’s launch of the stable token is expected to be rolled out sometime this summer, according to the governor’s office and other officials.
Justin George can be reached at justin@cowboystatedaily.com.
