Reno, the closest major city to the famous art festival Burning Man, is developing its own decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, and a token in partnership with TQ Tezos, a tech firm building Tezos-based solutions. Mayor Hillary Schieve announced the city’s plans to create the Reno DAO in a Thursday Tez Talks podcast hosted by the Tezos Commons Foundation. The city will build its Reno DAO and Reno Coin on top of the Tezos blockchain network in order to monetize art objects and pieces as well as further explore the potential benefits of blockchain and crypto to solve some of …

Blockchain incubator and investment firm Blockchains LLC is stepping up its plans to build a smart city in the Nevada desert east of Reno. In an interview with the Associated Press released Saturday, Blockchains CEO Jeffrey Berns said he had asked the state of Nevada to let him form a local government on the 67,000 acres the firm owns in Storey County. If his petition is successful, the blockchain firm would be allowed to operate as an “innovation zone,” where a company would be able to impose taxes and create courts — in addition to incorporating digital currency payments for …

As more jurisdictions explore the potential utility of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency, one American mayor suggested that she backs Chainlink — the most widely used oracle network for powering connected smart contracts. When Miami Mayor Francis Suarez announced that his municipality’s website would host Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin (BTC) white paper, Mayor Hillary Schieve of Reno, Nevada asked her colleague when he would become a LINK Marine — a popular term to describe supporters of Chainlink's oracle network. “The City of Miami believes in Bitcoin,” Suarez said, adding that he’s “working day and night to turn Miami into a hub for …

Huobi Group, the company behind major global crypto exchange Huobi, is apparently planning to return to the United States with a new license secured from local regulators. After ceasing operations in the U.S. in late 2019, Huobi seems to be interested in opening a trust company business in the country. Trusts are companies tasked with managing assets for a group of owners or investors. Grayscale's trusts use this structure to offer cryptocurrency exposure within traditional markets. According to a Dec. 22 announcement by Huobi Technology Holdings, the company’s Nevada-incorporated business Huobi Trust has received a Trust Company License from the …

Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency ATMs need a licensing scheme, authorities in the state of Nevada have officially announced. Bitcoin ATM operators must contact authorities In a statement first reported on by local news media outlet Nevada Current on Aug. 28, the state’s finance regulator, the Financial Institutions Division of the Department of Business and Industry (NFID), said ATM operators must conform to existing rules. “Any entity that facilitates the transmission of or holds fiat or digital currency by way of brick-and-mortar, kiosk, mobile, internet or any other means, should contact the NFID to request a licensure determination,” it reads. The …

The CEO of blockchain incubator and investment firm Blockchains LLC has purchased a bank for $28 million, The Nevada Independent reported on July 1. According to the report, CEO Jeffrey Berns said he bought out Kirkwood Bank of Nevada in order to secure financial inclusion for Blockchains as well as other blockchain-based businesses: “Purchasing the bank was basically security for me to make sure that Blockchains and myself had access to the financial system... But secondarily, it’s to create an environment where the blockchain ecosystem, the legitimate businesses out there who are trying to build projects that are going to …

A project at the University of Nevada, Reno is developing a new blockchain-powered autonomous vehicle project, according to a press release published on April 23. The Intelligent Mobility project, coordinated by the University of Nevada, Reno and the Nevada Center of Applied Research (NCAR), has chosen enterprise blockchain and Internet of Things (IoT) firm Filament to develop an autonomous vehicle smart city project. According to the press release, the new blockchain-enabled initiative is designed to improve safety and communication between driverless connected cars and the surrounding infrastructure. Carlos Cardillo, director of the Nevada Center for Applied Research, explained that the …

Representatives from the blockchain and cryptocurrency industries voiced their concerns about a bill in the Nevada State Senate in a Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, March 12. The bill, SB 195, would introduce several uniform standards to the virtual currency industry, and would require crypto-related business like exchanges to register with the state’s Department of Business and Industry. The Uniform Regulation of Virtual-Currency Businesses Act, sponsored by Democratic senator James Ohrenschall, is an effort put forward by the Uniform Law Commission to introduce consistent regulations for the virtual currency industry. In the hearing, Ohrenschall states that other iterations of the …

Blockchain technology has already found its way into local government services in the United States, but Nevada particularly is proactive, the AP reported on Jan. 7. Citing specifically the use of blockchain to issue digital marriage certificates, the publication found that two counties in the Silver State had already integrated the technology or were running trials. In total, 950 such digital certificates, which use smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain for security, had been issued to couples residing both within and outside Nevada since April 2018. However, according to local officials, willingness to automatically accept the new format is mixed. …