Blockchain Remains Bullish on Innovation Zones, Promises Economic Opportunity to Skeptical Nevada Lawmakers | Carson City Nevada News

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The front of the office building for Blockchains. (David Calvert / The Nevada Independent).

Zachary Bright, The Nevada Independent

Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak and Blockchains LLC’s ambitious dreams of an autonomous, high-tech innovation zone faded in the 2021 legislative session, and proponents of the concept are still facing skepticism from lawmakers across the political spectrum.

State lawmakers in a joint special committee studying the zones met Thursday to consider the controversial proposal, which would give county-level authority to a physical community Blockchains hopes to build in northern Nevada. A broad coalition of progressives, Republicans, tribal leaders and Storey County officials led Sisolak to abandon plans for a bill at the last session, and hesitation remained in Thursday’s meeting.

Blockchain representatives and other advocates presented a broad overview of the potential economic impact of the proposals, with lawmakers questioning the need to empower a private sector entity with county government powers. A number of participants also expressed concern about setting a bad precedent by granting public authority to a single company, while others expressed cautious optimism about possible benefits.

Hopefully, over the next four or five months, we’ve been able to demonstrate that this is perhaps the most important idea we’ve dealt with in our careers, said Pete Ernaut, a Blockchain lobbyist.

The company hopes to develop a smart city over a 75-year time frame on Storey County land that CEO Jeff Berns previously bought. Company representatives said that an Innovation Zone will use hundreds of thousands of sensors to collect data in real time combined with blockchain technology (decentralized records of digital transactions) to achieve highly responsive decision making.

Jeremy Aguero, principal Applied Analysis analyst hired by Blockchains, said it is estimated to create $ 16.4 billion in housing development and provide 123,600 jobs. Aguero also predicted that the community’s ongoing operations will lead to an average annual economic impact of $ 4.6 billion and support 40,300 jobs.

Matthew Digesti, vice president of Blockchains regulatory strategy, described what life in the Innovation Zone could be like.

Innovation Zone residents will own and control their digital identities, engage in peer-to-peer renewable energy transactions, manage all government interactions from a mobile phone, share public infrastructure revenue, vote in real time on issues of hyperlocal communities, they will pay taxes in real time, create passive income by monetizing assets, manage and control their medical records, and engage in other use cases we frankly can’t imagine, Digesti said.

But lawmakers have expressed some reservations about establishing an Innovation Zone and giving government powers to a private company.

Assemblyman Howard Watts (D-Las Vegas) asked how Blockchains intends to balance trust and transparency with personal privacy. Senator Mo Denis (D-Las Vegas) asked for more clarification as to why an innovation zone had to exist outside the jurisdiction of Storey County. And Assemblyman PK ONeill (R-Carson City) asked why blockchain technologies couldn’t only be used in Storey County as it is.

Representatives from Blockchains said an innovation zone would make it easier to retrofit the county’s existing buildings and infrastructure, and the technology used throughout the community would be decentralized and encrypted to preserve privacy.

Concerns also persisted about how a new development would affect the environment, including water consumption and the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation.

Storey County representatives called during the public comment period of the meetings, raising targeted questions.

Why can’t Blockchains LLC function within a Storey County known as the most business and innovation-friendly county, not just in the state, but in the country? asked Mary Walker, a Storey County lobbyist.

Storey County Commissioner Clay Mitchell expressed support for the economic opportunity, but expressed skepticism about creating a new government entity.

I’m pretty excited about the opportunities presented here, Mitchell said. I wonder, why weren’t the details of this idea presented to the host county first?

This story was used with permission from The Nevada Independent. Go here for updates on this and other stories.

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