Fast, seamless transfer of financial assets. Automatically enforceable business contracts. New opportunities for creative people to profit from their creations. A more secure and transparent supply chain for everything from pharmaceuticals to organic farm products.

All of these and other advantages are available through a single emerging technology called blockchain.

Perhaps best known as the underlying foundation of Bitcoin, blockchain offers a diverse array of innovative capabilities. Some of them are already becoming familiar, things like cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. Other applications are further out on the horizon but hold great promise for transforming business and life in positive ways.

Blockchain is unique in that it provides an immutable ledger. This unchangeable record can be used for any number of purposes, such as identity protection or data security. In the case of cryptocurrencies, blockchain documents the units of currency that exist and details ownership of those assets in a way that cannot be altered or forged.

Further afield, blockchain could be used to track the origin of coffee grown by a small-plot farmer in Tingo Maria, Peru, all the way to your local cappuccino shop in Portland. This will increasingly allow consumers to verify how well the products they buy adhere to environmental stewardship, safe working conditions, fair wage policies, and other values and standards we hold dear—and to do so at every stage in a production process.

The power of our pocketbooks is about to get that much more powerful!

As with any other technology, states and the federal government need to modernize applicable laws and regulations for blockchain and cryptocurrencies. A fair and predictable environment will be essential in taking full advantage of blockchain. Only with regulatory clarity can an industry flourish, create jobs, and contribute to our economy, as well as protect consumers.

Policymakers will need to initiate and sustain conversations with members of various blockchain-related industries, along with researchers and other experts. It’s a new and fast-moving field, so understanding the technology and its potential will be vital in setting the right stage for its development. With this focus and developed expertise, policymakers will have a better understanding of the technology and industry that will allow them to protect Oregon consumers’ money and privacy related to large multinational companies already using blockchain.

For example, in the cryptocurrency realm, companies are tackling “proof of reserves.” This practice helps ensure investors that that an entity holds sufficient digital assets to cover its outstanding liabilities. It’s a critical consumer protection, and every digital asset exchange should adopt a proof of reserves program. Fortunately, this cryptographic technology exists and it is rapidly being adopted as a best practice across the crypto sector.

In addition to Oregon’s strengths in biosciences, semiconductors, software, aerospace and more, we now have the chance to forge a path in the next emerging area, blockchain.

The competition is stiffening, however. From Texas to Wyoming, and even Washington, various states are welcoming blockchain technology and the jobs and economic advantages it creates. We in Oregon should not allow the innovation and opportunity to pass us by.

It’s time our leaders get on board with blockchain so we can get out in front.