University of Wyoming Launches Bitcoin Research Institute

The Bitcoin Research Institute will open in August as part of the University of Wyoming’s College of Arts and Sciences.

• The University of Wyoming is launching the UW Bitcoin Research Institute in August. The new institute aims to provide “high-quality peer-reviewed” studies about Bitcoin.
• Bradley Rettler, a Bitcoin activist and Associate Professor at the University of Wyoming, announced the new institute on X on July 28. He will serve as the institute’s director.
• Rettler described the current state of Bitcoin research as “poor” and stressed the industry needs more “high-quality peer-reviewed” publications to ensure the public is properly informed.

The Bitcoin Research Institute will officially open in August when the Fall semester for 2024-2025 begins.

• It will run annual summer workshops and offer academic prizes.
• The BRI is classed as a nonprofit and is accepting Bitcoin donations to assist research.

Wyoming is fast becoming a leading Bitcoin state in the United States, largely due to pro-Bitcoin Senator Cynthia Lummis and Caitlin Long, founder and CEO of Custodia Bank, which offers Bitcoin custody solutions.

Lummis announced a strategic Bitcoin Reserve bill at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville on July 27, which would see the US buy 5% of the 21 million Bitcoin that will ever enter into circulation.

“It can be used for one purpose, to reduce our debt,” Lummis declared during her keynote speech.

Wyoming lawmakers passed a bill in February, 2023, that prohibits state courts from forcing someone to disclose their digital asset private keys. The state also provides a legal framework for decentralized autonomous organizations.