The Iowa House of Representatives has approved a bill under which registration of rights or ownership made using smart contracts will be enforceable.
The new bill stipulates that smart contracts must have the same legal status as regular contracts. At the same time, distributed ledger technology (DLT) is considered as a reliable electronic data repository. The draft law states that a contract cannot be null and void just because it is a smart contract or has the characteristics of a smart contract.
Any registration of rights or ownership using a smart contract can be considered valid, even if this data is publicly available on the blockchain. Individuals who use DLT to protect information retain the same ownership or use of that information as if they were not using distributed ledger technology. However, this does not apply to those transactions, the terms of which provide for the transfer of ownership or rights to use such information.
94 members of the House of Representatives voted for the adoption of the bill, while no one spoke out against. At the beginning of the month, the bill received the approval of 47 members of the Senate, also with no negative votes. Democratic spokesman Steve Hansen suggested that the implementation of this bill will lay the foundation for broader regulation of the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry. However, Republican Representative Jeff Shipley believes that the current version of the bill focuses on clarifying DLT and smart contracts rather than regulation.
As a reminder, US lawmakers recently proposed creating a working group to assess the current regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies, as well as to make recommendations for changing it. The group will include representatives from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
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