by Hugh Jackson, Nevada Current
October 7, 2021
A man who made a killing once in cybercurrency and who wanted to create his own government in rural Nevada because, hey, who doesn’t, has pulled the plug on his fantastic if never fully or clearly explained techy techy plan.
“This concept has not gained enough traction from the State to warrant further debate,” Blockchains LLC CEO Jeffrey Berns wrote in a letter to Gov. Steve Sisolak last week. The letter was published by the Nevada Independent Thursday afternoon.
“One of the biggest problems” with the project’s viability, “was it appeared to have no champion,” Berns wrote to Sisolak in the letter.
“Given the personal and public assurances you made regarding your commitment to this project, you can imagine how greatly disappointed we are in the effort put forth,” Berns wrote.
Uh-oh maybe no more campaign contributions to Sisolak from Berns & Blockchains.
Oh well.
The project of course was a farce from the start. As, ahem, one critic wrote after Sisolak announced draft legislation for the scheme would be pulled in favor of a study committee, by pushing the project in the first place Sisolak had “achieved that most elusive of goals sought by politicians running for statewide office by uniting northern and southern Nevada: From border to border, people thought the Blockchains thing was daft.”
When the ensuing study committee finally met, nothing transpired to reassure Nevadans that the project was anything other than, as aforementioned, farce, occasionally laced with shameless yet obscenely stupid hype.
Meeting with the press to discuss the state’s vaccination efforts Thursday, Sisolak expressed disappointment with Berns’ decision to pull the plug.
Sisolak shouldn’t be too sad though. After all, he’s running for reelection, and an argument could be made that the quicker this squirrelly pie-in-the-sky jiggery-pokery got shoved off the radar screen, the better.
Oh and on the bright side, in his letter to Sisolak, Berns promised he’ll still stay in Nevada so he can save it with techy techy. For instance, he will develop an autonomous vehicle testing site. And goodness knows Nevada can’t have enough of those.
Nevada Current is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nevada Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Hugh Jackson for questions: [email protected]. Follow Nevada Current on Facebook and Twitter.
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