Alberta Innovation Minister Doug Schweitzer wants the province to be a destination for cryptocurrency companies, hoping the sector will play an important role in helping diversify its economy.

In an interview with The Logic, Schweitzer pitched Alberta’s commitment to cutting red tape, a private sector-driven energy grid and “pro-business approach” to regulation as reasons why companies in the digital asset sector should set up shop there. He said cryptocurrency is “a big part” of Alberta’s larger push to attract tech jobs.

“It’s a promising area for us,” Schweitzer said. “We’re trying to make sure we have that balance between regulation and innovation to allow for crypto development in Alberta.”

Schweitzer made the comments following The Logic’s report that Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, had registered three corporate entities in Alberta as it seeks to cooperate with regulators and continue to do business in Canada. “Big news to follow in the cryptocurrency world,” Schweitzer tweeted the day of the story’s publication.

Asked what the “big news” is, Schweitzer said it was the corporate registrations themselves. “I just think it’s big news, whenever a company of that size and scale globally, is expressing confidence in your province at the place that they want to register and sign up. I think that right there is big news,” he said.

Alberta joins Miami, New York City and Texas in pitching itself as a cryptocurrency destination. The mayors of the two cities have both pledged to take some of their paycheques in Bitcoin. Texas has billed itself as an attractive destination for Bitcoin miners because of its cheap power and hands-off attitude to regulation—a pitch that has similarities with Schweitzer’s.

Not everyone has welcomed the industry with open arms, however. Cryptocurrency has become a political lightning rod in the U.S., with elected officials like Senator Elizabeth Warren blasting crypto services as “the new shadow bank,” and civil-society groups criticizing the industry’s carbon footprint.

Binance itself has been accused of having “varying degrees of regulatory adherence” by competitor Coinbase and engaged in a high-profile back-and-forth over the holidays with the Ontario Securities Commission, which put out a press release calling an email the platform sent to Ontario users about its recent efforts to get registered “unacceptable.” The company has embarked on a compliance-focused hiring spree after being barred from a number of jurisdictions around the world.

Schweitzer said cryptocurrencies are “disruptive” and the space is “moving very quickly,” making it all the more important for governments to strike the right balance between consumer protection and encouraging innovation.

“I don’t think it should be seen as a partisan issue. It’s just more simply, ‘Do you believe in entrepreneurial endeavors or not?’” he said. “And we in Alberta, we believe in entrepreneurship.”

Koleya Karringten, the Calgary-based executive director of the Canadian Blockchain Consortium, said she agrees the government’s goal should be balancing investor protection with promoting innovation, but thinks Alberta has more work to do to achieve it. She said she’s worked with many crypto businesses that have set up shop in the province because of its perceived friendliness, only to encounter roadblocks and a lack of regulatory clarity.

“They come to work with our regulators, because the appearance is that they’re more friendly. And the taxes are better than what you get in Ontario,” she said. “But it’s still the exact same issues.”

Karringten said it would be a mistake for the government to take an approach to the industry that’s too laissez-faire, saying she would prefer to see Alberta become a hub for established, compliant enterprise blockchain than a crypto free-for-all. “Crypto is still considered really high risk, and there’s a lot of fraud happening,” she said.

Pamela Draper, chief executive of the Calgary-based cryptocurrency-trading platform Bitvo, which is seeking registration with securities regulators, said Alberta is a good place for any tech company to set up, thanks to the provincial government’s support for the sector and economic factors like relatively inexpensive office space. “There are all kinds of advantages to being in Alberta that aren’t necessarily specific to crypto at all,” she said.

Schweitzer is hoping to attract all kinds of tech jobs to the province, but there’s one gimmick he hasn’t tried yet to gain clout with the crypto crowd—pledging to take a paycheque or three in Bitcoin, as the mayors of Miami and New York City have done. Schweizer said he has no plans to do so right now—but never say never.

“You know what, I haven’t thought about that,” he said. “I haven’t gone down that path yet. But I don’t think that I would preclude myself being paid in cryptocurrency in the future.”