Bermuda, though small — 20 square miles — is a giant when it comes to blockchain and cryptocurrency. It is one of the few countries that has built an effective regulatory environment to encourage blockchain innovation and investment.
The country’s Premier E. David Burt, a former tech developer himself, talked to Forbes during Bermuda Tech Week about the progress his country has made with blockchain. The event focused on fintech, crypto, and blockchain.
Premier Burt said Bermuda is looking to tap into digital currencies so that its government can benefit from the technology by being able to collect taxes effectively and allow businesses to be transparent.
“If there’s any stablecoin, a one-to-one U.S. dollar stablecoin that is regulated, it will be accepted for payments for goods, services, and taxes,” Burt said, adding that government should leave the development of stablecoins to private companies and only play a regulatory role.
“We can approach this as a technology problem, or we can approach it as a regulatory problem.”
Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 68: Jamarlin Martin
Jamarlin talks about the recent backlash against Lebron James for not speaking up for Joshua Wong and the violent Hong Kong protestors.
Bermuda is already working with Shyft (a mobile-first workforce management app) and PerseiD on a blockchain-based national ID concept for citizens, businesses and government bodies that Burt says will show “how this can actually work”.
“But we don’t want it to be limited to a particular company. We want multiple companies that are inside the identity space,” Burt said during the summit.
“This is all about making sure that we’re that center of innovation, allowing private companies to come here and to test these things that they don’t have the ability to do in other places.”
