California may join other states, such as Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii and New York, in considering blockchain to help manage state records.
A California bill, AB 2658, the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act, would change the definition of an electronic record. The original Uniform Electronic Transactions Act validated contracts and records that include electronic documents or signatures.
“Blockchain technology has exciting potential for the tech industry and private business in California. Defining blockchain technology in statute and including it in the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act will give innovators greater certainty to begin incorporating blockchain technology into their business,” Assembly Majority Leader Ian Calderon told Techwire in an email.
The new bill will include blockchain as a kind of record, effectively updating the definition of electronic record. It will also update the legal definition of contract to include smart contracts, or those built on blockchain.
“Blockchain technology means distributed ledger technology that uses a distributed, decentralized, shared and reciprocal ledger, that may be public or private, permissioned or permissionless, or driven by tokenized crypto economics or tokenless. The data on the ledger is protected with cryptography, is immutable, is auditable, and provides an uncensored truth," is how the legislation outlines the emerging technology.
The legislation has no co-authors and can be heard in committee as soon as March 18.
