The state of Colorado is accepting cryptocurrency for all state tax payments, Gov. Jared Polis announced at a kickoff event for Denver Startup Week, which began Monday.

The cryptocurrency payment option will be offered on all state tax bills, including individual and business incomes.

“We’re just showing again, from a customer service perspective, how Colorado is tech-forward in meeting the ever-changing needs of businesses and residents,” Polis said.

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For those not familiar with cryptocurrency, it’s the often-volatile digital currency “in which transactions are verified and records maintained by a decentralized system using cryptography, rather than by a centralized authority,” according to the Oxford Dictionary. That cryptography is called blockchain technology.

The state will operate its own ledger of transactions converted to dollars, Polis said.

“Colorado is like the blockchain industry – constantly finding new ways to do things,” he said.

The 11th Annual Denver Startup Week is centered around Startup Week Headquarters, 1137 16th Street Mall in the ground floor of Tabor Center next to Skyline Park. People can enter off 17th between Lawrence and Arapahoe streets. But most events are spread throughout downtown.

Polis noted that if he wins reelection, Colorado will have been led by an entrepreneur for 16 years after his next term ends. Former Gov. John Hickenlooper started Wynkoop Brewing Co., one of the first brewpubs in the state in Denver’s Lower Downtown (LoDo) neighborhood.

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“Denver Startup Week is really a key linchpin, securing Colorado’s leading innovation economy,” Polis said. “Every year, our entrepreneur community and our business community grows stronger and more diverse.”

Co-founder Erik Mitisek welcomed the all in-person format returning for the first time since 2019, due to the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns altering the last two years to video-conference only, or blended in 2021.

“What’s most important in our (entrepreneurial) community is relationships,” Mitisek said. “When I think about every organization I’ve been a part of or built, every company I’ve been a part of or built, anything I’ve done that has any sort of meaning in my life, relationships are rocketships. … The vision these entrepreneurs have in our community, they will mobilize those relationships to turn that vision into reality.”

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The ever-popular Startup Week Pitch Competition finals are at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday at the Startup Week headquarters. The job fair is 5-9 p.m. on Wednesday at the McNichols Building and the Equity Pitch Competition – new this year – is 6 p.m. on Tuesday at the headquarters.

For a full schedule of events and locations, or to register, check the Denver Startup Week webpage, denverstartupweek.org/schedule/2022/tuesday.