Despite the recent market crash that has seen Bitcoin collapse below the $4,000 mark, a very big step towards mass adoption was taken at the start of this week. Ohio, an American state, decided to take things to another level when its authorities announced that they would allow people to pay taxes in Bitcoin (BTC.)

The Wall Street Journal reported the piece of news, one that will, most likely, pave the way for more states to join the ‘show.’ The report expresses that, from this week on, firms and businesses will be able to pay several taxes that range from tobacco sales tax to employee withholding tax to public utility tax while using the planet’s most prominent and valuable digital asset.

Registration Process and other Requirements

To provide crypto tax payments, the process has three stages: Firms and companies first need to sign up with the Office of the Ohio Treasurer, and for that, they will have a dedicated website, named OhioCrypto.com.

After that, companies would need to write down their tax details. Among them are payment amount and tax period. To finalize the process, the due amount is paid via BTC by using a “compatible” crypto wallet.

There are numerous cryptocurrency wallets existing on the Internet, so it is crucial to determine which one is allowed to provide tax-related payments in the state of Ohio. Some of them are the Bitcoin Core client, Mycelium and bread wallet, and compatible ones with the Bitcoin Payment Protocol.

Payments Will be Processed through BitPay

Georgia-based payments processor BitPay will be the tool for helping the state of Ohio to accept cryptocurrency payments for taxes. It will process them and convert the BTC to dollars for the Treasurer’s Office to use.

Right now, the service is only available for companies, but further, down the road, state authorities expect that the facility will also be there for individuals.

Ohio is the first state in the United States of America that accepts any cryptocurrency for tax payments. Other regions’ legislators are known to be considering the alternative as well and have done it in the past. Georgia considered as recently as February, and Illinois and Arizona did it in March, but with residents.

In the case of Arizona, its lawmakers dismissed any intentions to apply the plan in the month of May because the proposal did not gather enough votes. Georgia legislators lost traction in April because of a lack of understanding, according to Senator Mike Williams.

Experiments with the Blockchain Technology

In addition to adding crypto as a payment method for commercial taxes, Ohio is also experimenting with other aspects of the blockchain technology. For example, and according to Coindesk, it legally recognized data stored and transacted on a blockchain, which means that blockchain-secured electronic signatures have the same weight as any electronic signatures.

Over the summer, legislators in Ohio were promoting the states a “future hob for Blockchain” with the intention of enticing businesses and talent.

By Andres Chavez

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