Senate Bill 18-086 Summary

• Establishes legislative intent to allow Colorado state government agencies to identify and implement distributed ledger technologies (such as blockchains) for securing state records and protecting against cyber threats, without mandating specific solutions.

• Colorado experienced 6-8 million attempted cyber attacks per day in 2017; the bill authorizes agencies to use encryption and blockchain technologies to reduce fraud, improve data security, protect personal privacy information, and create auditable transaction visibility.

• Appropriates $250,000 to the Office of Information Technology (1.0 FTE) for fiscal year 2018-19 to evaluate distributed ledger technologies in state data systems.

• Appropriates $5,100,000 to the Department of Higher Education for fiscal year 2018-19 to fund cybersecurity and distributed ledger technology education and research at Colorado institutions of higher education, with scholarship requirements ranging from 10-20% of funding.

• Prohibits county and municipal governments from imposing taxes or fees on private use of distributed ledger technologies or requiring permits for private persons or entities to use such technologies.