Wyoming lawmakers have passed a bill that would prohibit courts in the state from forcing someone to disclose their private keys to digital assets, with one small exception.
The bill passed the Wyoming House of Representatives in a 41-13 vote on Feb. 15, a day after it was passed in the Wyoming State Senate by a 31-0 vote.
If the bill is approved by Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon, the law would go into effect on July 1.
“No person shall be compelled to produce a private key or make a private key known to any other person in any civil, criminal, administrative, legislative or other proceeding[s]” in the state of Wyoming, the incoming law reads. The law includes any private key associated with a digital asset, a person's digital identity, or any other benefit or right afforded by a private key.
Minor exceptions relate to the unavailability of public keys or the inability to disclose details of digital assets, digital identities or other interests or rights. However, the bill also states that the new law will not prohibit people from being compelled to "produce, sell, transfer, assign or disclose digital assets, digital identities or other interests or rights" that private keys can provide.
Nor does it prevent people from being compelled to "disclose information about digital assets, digital identities, or other interests or rights."
The new law — W.S. 34-29-107 — will be titled “Production of private keys; prohibition.”
The private keys legislation comes under Chapter 29 — Digital Assets which is a subset of Title 34 — Property, Conveyances and Security Transactions.
The passage of the bill comes as private key laws were in the works as early as September 2019.
Wyoming has long been touted as one of the most crypto-friendly states in the country.
It was the first US state to declare a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) as a limited liability company (LLC) in July 2021, and had previously considered a state-issued stablecoin in February 2022 , yet , those efforts don't seem to have progressed much since then.
