The University of Wyoming will allocate USD 4 million to operate and maintain nodes and pools for staking of at least 3 cryptocurrencies. The money will come from a loan from a strategic investment fund of the State.
The announcement was made by Caitlin Long, head of the Wyoming Fintech and Blockchain Commission and founder and CEO of Avanti Bank & Trust, by posting on her Twitter account.
The project arises as a method of generating income, which will be used to cover operating costs in the first instance and, later, to return the millions of the State investment fund.
The next step with the proceeds of these initiatives will be “to provide support to programs and activities related to blockchain technology at the university and other public institutions throughout the state,” according to the official project released by Long.
In addition, the loan disbursement implies the university’s commitment to allocate at least $ 2 to private donations or to campus reserve accounts for each dollar obtained from staking from the state investment fund.
On the other hand, the project published by the Wyoming state official also specifies that the university must allow public access to staking pools, as well as “facilitate the operation of blockchains.”
What cryptocurrencies will the staking have?
At the time of writing, there were no details about the three or more cryptocurrencies that would be included in the staking of the University of Wyoming.
However, in Caitlin Long’s post many users commented that Cardano (ADA) could be one of them. The speculation is based on the fact that a staking pool operated by this institution was identified on the CardanoStaking.info site. So far, that pool only had 9 mined blocks.
Another alternative could be Ether (ETH), a cryptocurrency that several American universities have chosen to run their nodes, as can be seen on the ethernodes.org site. These include the Ohio State University, Syracuse University (private) and the University of Chicago.
Wyoming, a “crypto-friendly” state
As CriptoNoticias has reported on various occasions, Wyoming is one of the states that has taken the most actions in pursuit of the development of the cryptocurrency ecosystem. For example, in March 2021 a project to legally recognize DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) was introduced by the Wyoming Committee on Blockchain, Financial Technology, and Digital Innovation Technology.
Even legislators from that state like Cynthia Lummis have ratified their position in favor of cryptocurrencies and their benefits. Likewise, there are several private projects in the state that aim to get credit from this technology. Such is the case in the city of Casper, where a project has been installed that uses excess natural gas to provide electricity to a bitcoin (BTC) mining farm.
