15: Wyoming State & DAO Bill-38 // Senator Chris Rothfuss

Today on our CityDAO Podcast, we have Senator Chris Rothfuss from the State of Wyoming. Chris Rothfuss is the Senate Minority Leader of the Wyoming Legislature. He was first elected in 2010 and represents Senate District 9 in Laramie, Wyoming. Senator Rothfuss co-chairs the Wyoming Blockchain Select Committee and serves as the ranking member of the Education Committee and the Minerals, Business, and Economic Development Committee. Also, one of his sponsored bills is the Wyoming Stable Token Act.

In addition to his legislative responsibilities, Senator Rothfuss is an advanced technology consultant and a visiting Professor for the Honors College at the University of Wyoming. He holds a BA in International Studies and an MS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wyoming; an MS in Applied Physics and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Washington.

Time-Stamped Show Notes:

• 2:26 Senator Chris Rothfuss has been in the senate for 12 years. He shares his story of how he got into the political arena.
• 3:50 In 2012, Senator Rothfuss came across Bitcoin and he thought that these cryptocurrencies are going to be a game-changer in the future and he has followed it ever since.
• 4:42 In the early days, Senator Rothfuss discovered that the Statutory Money Transmitters Act in Wyoming was interpreted strangely and it doesn’t make sense at all.
• 7:21 Eric provides a definition of a senator.
• 7:58 Senator Rothfuss further explains his role as a senator at the state level.
• 8:46 Aside from being a Senator, he is also a professor at the University of Wyoming. Senator Rothfuss talks about his typical daily schedule as a Senator.
• 9:23 Being unable to make a Bitcoin contribution to the University of Wyoming led to the concept of the Blockchain Task Force Committee.
• 10:56 Senator Rothfuss describes why Wyoming is a great place to live.
• 11:45 In terms of the cryptocurrency and digital asset space, there is a definite advantage of being in Wyoming compared to other states.
• 16:14 For those who want to see crypto-related legislation in Wyoming, Senator Rothfuss recommends going to the Wyoming Legislature’s website, which is WyoLeg.gov, and then under Committees, click on Select & Task Forces.
• 17:10 According to Senator Rothfuss, the Wyoming legislative process is very open to the public. Most of the ideas of legislation and structure of legislation that they have passed came from stakeholders that have partnered with them.
• 19:12 For those interested in joining the legislative process public meetings in Wyoming, Senator Rothfuss provides the necessary information.
• 20:46 Senator Rothfuss talks about the reason why they want to have their own Wyoming stable coin.
• 24:29 The DAO LLC Act in Wyoming does not contain too many restrictions because Senator Rothfuss wants to make it very flexible.
• 26:31 There are over 240 DAOs registered in Wyoming and Senator Rothfuss is hopeful that there will be a lot more to come.
• 27:11 One of the things that Senator Rothfuss is always excited about is the idea of democratizing finance.
• 28:36 In the Wyoming legislative process, they are proud to say that they can respond quickly to problems and fix them immediately.
• 30:04 In the next decade, Senator Chris believes that digital assets will become integrated in almost everything we do in our daily lives.
• 33:24 Senator Chris has some important suggestions and challenges for CityDAO.
• 35:34 For his final message, Senator Chris urges the CityDAO community to provide them with some feedback and advice.

Key Points from the Interview:

1. “We’re democratizing finance. We’re making sure that these financial transactions can be down at the person-to-person level. You and I can engage and set up these structures directly. We don’t have to rely on traditional financial entities that tend to control rather than enable. And this DAO structure, the speedy bank structure, everything that we’re doing has behind it the intent of allowing the individual to control his or her own financial destiny and business destiny and enter into these transactions that they choose to and want to and to optimize based on these technologies.”
2. “I invite your CityDAO community to provide that feedback to us based on your firsthand experiences and if you have any advice, get us that advice, participate through our select committee or any other way you can, come join the blockchain stampede, just engage with us. Be a partner with us, because we really do value that experience that you and your community now have.”

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