WASHINGTON STATE RECOGNIZED THE LEGITIMACY OF THE BLOCKCHAIN RECORDS

Washington state parliamentarians passed a bill that recognizes and protects the legal status of electronic records that are part of systems built on distributed registry technology.

The bill was introduced in January, however the Governor of the state signed it after hearings and amendments. The law, which prevents discrimination against electronic records that are part of the distributed register, will enter into force at the end of July.

“An electronic record cannot be denied legal force, validity or enforcement just because it is created, transferred, received or stored using distributed registry technology,” the bill says.

The document also establishes definitions of the terms “blockchain” and “distributed register”, which can be used in other bills in the future.

Recently, the state of Washington passed a bill to encourage the use of blockchain. The law encourages development on the basis of the blockchain, recognizes the appropriateness of its use in trade, in particular in the documents with a digital signature, and also makes changes to the existing regulatory framework to define technology.