Welcome to part three of our “Tar Heel Chain” series. In this installment, our two months of reporting uncover how former Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest helped lay the foundation for North Carolina’s rise as a leader in America’s digital economy.

The gated entrance to the modern Raleigh residence opens onto something that looks more like an architectural showcase than a typical North Carolina home. Clean lines, floor-to-ceiling windows, and precisely curated finishes reflect the sensibilities of someone who thinks systematically about design and construction. That’s no accident.

Before serving as Lieutenant Governor, Dan Forest trained and worked as an architect. A background that shapes the way he approaches both buildings and policy. Inviting me into one of his firm’s recently completed projects, Forest immediately establishes his credentials as someone who builds things to last.

“It was probably twelve years ago when Dan [Spuller] walked into my office and started telling me about this thing called blockchain and cryptocurrency,” Forest recalled, his hands sketching invisible blueprints as he spoke. The memory was vivid: Spuller and his team had arrived with an enthusiasm that was impossible to ignore. Forest admitted he “really had no idea what was really going on, but there was a level of excitement with this group of guys” that demanded attention.

Forest, the former Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina turned private sector strategist, embodies North Carolina’s evolution on emerging technology.

What happened next revealed the architect in him. Rather than dismissing what he didn’t understand, Forest did what builders do, he studied the foundation. “As Lieutenant Governor, I really made an attempt to position myself as kind of the innovation lieutenant governor,” he explained, leaning forward with the intensity that had defined his political career. “I took on a lot of things related to innovation, and I knew the blockchain fit into that, but there weren’t enough people that knew about crypto and blockchain.”

That early exposure to blockchain concepts helped inform North Carolina’s pioneering approach to digital asset regulation. House Bill 289, which took two years to navigate the legislative process, was signed into law by Governor Pat McCrory on June 30, 2016, making North Carolina the first state in America to define “virtual currency” in money transmission law and securing exemptions for miners, smart contract platforms, and software developers.

Forest’s systematic approach to innovation policy culminated in 2019 with the establishment of the North Carolina Blockchain Initiative, creating a formal volunteer working group to educate General Assembly members and develop comprehensive policy recommendations. The bipartisan North Carolina Regulatory Sandbox Act of 2021 followed, creating controlled environments for financial technology innovation based on the Initiative’s 2020 Strategic Report.

But years later, Forest’s perspective on where we stand today reveals both humility and strategic insight. “I don’t think I even have had the aha moment yet, to be honest,” he told me. “I think we’re just at the verge of it—where everybody is going to say aha about blockchain and cryptocurrency, just like they’re doing with AI right now.”

The AI comparison is deliberate. “AI has been around for a long, long time, but in the past year, it’s become commercialized in a way that is almost ubiquitous with the American people. So that kind of aha moment has been a bit elusive in the blockchain world, but I think it’s coming.”

That admission might seem surprising from someone who helped pioneer North Carolina’s digital asset policies, but it captures something essential about Forest’s approach to innovation. He’s not claiming to be a prophet; he’s positioning himself—and his state—as a first adopter.

“North Carolina is an innovation state.”

“North Carolina is an innovation state,” Forest said, his voice carrying the conviction of someone who has seen blueprints become buildings. “The question is: how can we start to tell that story? How do we position ourselves not as trying to catch up, but as the leader? We need to be the first adopter, not the last one to figure it out.”

The architect’s training emerges again in his analysis of North Carolina’s digital economy potential. Where others see fragmented resources, Forest sees building materials. When I pressed him about the state’s fragmented digital economy assets—pointing out that “there’s all these little micro ingredients for the full supply chain for the digital economy, everything from spruce pine quartz for microchips, all the way to data centers, to the Research Triangle, the education, but there isn’t a recipe yet”—Forest’s response revealed his builder’s perspective.

His solution? Look at what has worked before. “You look at ways to repeat the successes you had with things like the Research Triangle Park,” Forest explained. “That started as a chunk of land and a vision, and fifty years later, everybody in the world talks about North Carolina technology because of Research Triangle Park.”

The comparison isn’t accidental. Forest sees cryptocurrency and AI as the next Research Triangle. A transformative economic foundation that requires vision, patience, and the willingness to build something before everyone else understands its value.

When our conversation turned to North Carolina’s competitive position, Forest immediately focused on the strategic thinking required to attract business leadership. “If you want to continue to grow the state, you’re going to deal with the personal income tax first,” he explained. “Because if a C-suite is sitting around making decisions, and a CEO and a CFO, and they’re all sitting saying, ‘What state are we going to go to?’ the first people on the list are going to be the states where they’re not hitting their own personal, private pocketbook first.”

But Forest also recognizes the energy foundation that makes everything else possible. “Duke Energy, being located here, headquartered in North Carolina, makes a really big difference to companies,” he said. “They know they have reliable, sustainable power. People come from other countries and move to North Carolina because they know their source of power is reliable and keep their factory up and running.”

When I pressed him about losing business to Georgia, Texas, Virginia, and Tennessee due to energy costs, his response revealed both the complexity of the challenge and potential solutions.

“If I could solve that, I’d probably be working for one of those guys,” Forest said with characteristic directness. But he sees Duke Energy’s regulated structure as potentially advantageous for innovation testing. “We have nuclear reactors on submarines that can theoretically power cities of 80,000 people. Small Modular Reactors are going to be the future of energy long term, and if it’s going to be embraced anywhere, it’s going to be embraced here in North Carolina.”

“That kind of aha moment has been a bit elusive in the blockchain world but I think it’s coming.”
Dan Forest

It’s the perspective of someone who has spent his career reading blueprints and understanding that today’s foundation becomes tomorrow’s skyline. Forest sees North Carolina not as catching up to the digital economy, but as building the infrastructure foundation that will support it.

The question, as he frames it, isn’t whether North Carolina can lead in digital assets—it’s whether the state will have the vision to act on the foundation it’s already constructed.

For Forest, that foundation includes Duke Energy’s nuclear capacity, the state’s research universities, reliable regulatory frameworks, and something harder to quantify but equally important: the willingness to be first.

Don’t miss our upcoming Tar Heel Chain documentary, where we bring North Carolina’s digital economy story to life on screen.

From blockchain to nuclear energy, see how the state is building the backbone of America’s future. Watch the trailer here.