‘I see my role as an innovator’

Hawaii Business Magazine has published a great overview of how Hawaii came to be known as unfriendly to Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, and how Iris Ikeda, the current state commissioner of the Division of Financial Institutions (DFI), is trying to chart a new path for the Aloha State.

Bypassing the Bitcoin Blocade

Today, the fate of cryptocurrency in Hawai‘i depends on one woman. As commissioner of financial institutions in the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Iris Ikeda has considerable authority over the regulation of digital currency exchanges. In part, this is because there are no state laws designed to govern the exchanges, which proliferated following the invention of Bitcoin in 2008.

Hawaii Business Magazine, May 12, 2021

Read the full article here.