Connecticut Lawmakers Seek to Legalize Blockchain Smart Contracts

The Commerce Committee of the U.S. state of Connecticut has filed a new bill that would authorize the commercial use of blockchain smart contracts.

By Yogita Khatri

Mar 8, 2019 at 3:30 p.m. UTC

Updated Sep 13, 2021 at 8:58 a.m. UTC

The Connecticut State Capitol, in Hartford

Yogita Khatri

The U.S. state of Connecticut could soon legalize the use of blockchain smart contracts in business.

The Commerce Committee of the Connecticut General Assembly filed house bill 7310 on Friday, proposing that blockchain smart contracts should be authorized for commerce in the state.

According to the bill:

“No contract relating to a transaction shall be denied legal effect, validity or enforceability solely because such contract is executed through a smart contract.”

The bill would, in effect, give equal rights to firms that use smart contracts on a blockchain or distributed ledger with those that use more traditional methods to secure information in connection with a transaction.

Elsewhere in the U.S., Ohio passed a similar bill last August, while a Florida effort to treat blockchain ledgers and smart contracts as legally-binding methods of data storage failed to pass in October.

The Chamber of Digital Commerce, a trade association representing the blockchain industry, last year investigated new smart contract laws and "concluded that enactment of state legislation regarding smart contracts is unnecessary and potentially undermines the growth of the industry."

The organization said at the time:

“Existing legal frameworks for defining and giving legal effect to contracts cover smart contract technology, and nothing regarding smart contracts ought to change existing definitions or the application of current contract law. Additional laws are largely unnecessary and will only serve to confuse the application of current law.”

Connecticut State Capitol image via Shutterstock

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