California plans to embrace cryptocurrency

FILE - An advertisement of Bitcoin, one of the cryptocurrencies, is displayed on a building in Hong Kong, on Nov. 18, 2021. Central African Republic has legally recognized the use of cryptocurrency after the president approved a law adopted by deputies last week that has also made bitcoin an official currency alongside the West African CFA franc in the African nation. President Faustin Archange Touadera validated the law Wednesday, April 27, 2022, saying that the exchange rate between cryptocurrencies and the FCFA is freely determined by the market. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

SACRAMENTO: California, which has a economy larger than all but four countries and where much of the world’s technological innovation is born, has become the first state to formally begin examining how to broadly adapt to cryptocurrency and related innovations.

Following a path laid out by president Joe Biden in March, governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order for state agencies to move in tandem with the federal government to craft regulations for digital currencies. It also calls for officials to explore incorporating broader blockchain computer coding into the government operations.