Ohio can lead the ranks of the American states to implement and recognize the legal force of smart contracts and records, stored in the blockchain. The corresponding bill is now under consideration in the state parliament.
Bill 300, submitted to the Senate for consideration, was introduced by Senator Matt Dolan (Matt Dolan). The project involves changes to the sections of the Single Law on Electronic Transactions, with the fixation of records in the blockchain and smart contracts. In addition, the bill in the case of a smart contract will have the same legal force, that currently has the usual contract.
In case of adoption, the draft will add to the law an amendment stating that the technology of blockchain can be used to store electronic information and provide property rights:
"Notwithstanding any other law, a person that, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, uses blockchain technology to secure information that the person owns or has the right to use retains the same rights of ownership or use with respect to that information as before the person secured the information using blockchain technology”
The proposed bill also states: "This section does not apply to the use of technology to protect information about a transaction, to the extent that the terms of the transaction expressly confer ownership rights or limited use of this information."
In addition, the bill will change the definition of electronic contracts in another section and add to it the phrase that "smart contracts can exist in trade."
The bill also suggests another change. Although the existing legislation already states that "a contract can not be deprived of legal force or enforcement only because it counts electronic accounting", under the project 300, the phrase will be added: "or because the contract contains the terms of a smart contract ". This allows us to consolidate the use of smart contracts as legal documents.
Similar bills are under consideration or have already been adopted in other US states. For example, last March, in Arizona, a bill was signed, according to which blockchain and the use of smart contracts were officially recognized as legally binding, and this year in the state of the Grand Canyon it was legalized to store data in the blockchain.
Now in California, a bill that allows you to store data in the national data center, including information about shareholders is implemented. Similarly, companies can use the unit for verification in Delaware and Wyoming.
In general, we can say that the US states are on the transition to the adoption of the rule base for blockchain and cryptocurrency. According to a recent report by the Brookings Institution, most US states have already adopted regulations on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.