European Parliament publishes a paper on blockchain and the GDPR

European Parliament publishes a paper on blockchain and the GDPR, titled “The General Data Protection Regulation  Can distributed ledgers be squared with European data protection law?” Here is the link to this interesting paper: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2019/634445/EPRS_STU(2019)634445_EN.pdf   More information. on GDPR and blockchain, Francesca Giannoni-Crystal 

Blockchain law passed in San Marino contains some interesting aspects

  On June 6, 2019, the Republic of San Marino approved the Blockchain Decree of the Republic of San Marino (Delegate Decree n. 86, dated May 23, 2019). No official press statement has been released yet, but this source revealed the news. The Blockchain Decree provides a regulatory framework formulating specific rules for two different […]

Washington State’s legislation on blockchain. This is one of the 28 pieces of legislation on blockchain introduced in the several US jurisdictions in 2019

Blockchain companies successfully lobbied for legislation that recognized blockchain as a legitimate record-keeping technology. On April 26, 2019, Washington State Governor signed bill SB 563 recognizing the validity of distributed ledger technology. The bill adds a new chapter to the Revised Code of Washington and it introduces the definitions of Blockchain, which means a cryptographically […]

Italian law defines blockchain and smart contracts

  On February 12, 2019, Law no. 12/2019, converting into law the so called Decreto Semplificazioni (“Simplification Decree”), Legislative Decree No. 135/2018 was published on the Italian Official Gazette no. 36/2019. Among other provisions, the Simplification Decree defines the concept of “technologies based on distributed ledgers (blockchain)” and “smart contracts”. “Technologies based on distributed ledgers” are technologies and […]

A county in Nevada has started to use blockchain to provide marriage certificates

Washoe County, Reno, in the State of Nevada, uses Ethereum blockchain to provide immutable digital record of wedding certificates. The service allows certified copies of marriage certificates to be emailed. It requires no special technology besides the ability to view a plain PDF. The county uses the services of a company called TitanSeal. At https://www.washoecounty.us… you […]

EU Parliament’s resolution to boost DLTs and blockchains

On October 3, 2018, the European Parliament published a resolution on distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) and blockchain. DLTs and blockchain are the technologies behind bitcoin and other crypto currencies, and basically consist in a ledger of digital information maintained in decentralised form across a large network of computers. See here for more information. The EU […]

Report on the Blockchain and the GDPR by the European Union Blockchain Observatory and Forum

On October 16, 2018, the European Union Blockchain Observatory and Forum published a thematic report on the Blockchain and the GDPR (“Report”). The report includes the input of a number of different stakeholders and sources. The report aims at answering the question of whether GDPR compliant blockchain is possible. The paper highlights a fundamental point: […]

Some solutions for dispute resolution in the Blockchain era

  Do the benefits of smart contracts overwrite their downfalls? While smart contracts bring a lot of benefits, allowing for a quick execution once a certain condition takes place, a lot of value can get lost in these transactions. For example, it is estimated that in 2017, over $1B in value was lost with smart […]

CNIL publishes analysis of blockchain in light of the GDPR

In September 2018, the French Data Protection Agency, the Commission Nationale de l’informatique et des Libertés (CNIL) published a report explaining how Blockchain relates to the GDPR (“Report”). In particular the Report highlights the following. WHO IS THE CONTROLLER IN A BLOCKCHAIN TRANSACTION. Users of the web who decide to submit a transaction to the validation […]

Arizona adds blockchain technology to corporate law

Arizona signed House Bill 2603 to add a definition in Section 10-140, Definition – Arizona Revised Statutes (Section 10, Corporations and Associations) In particular, now 10-140(53) reads: 53.  “WRITING” OR “WRITTEN” INCLUDES BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY AS DEFINED IN SECTION 44‑7061. See https://legiscan.com/AZ/text/HB2603/id/1718691 The definition of “blockchain technology” is contained in Section 44-7061: “distributed ledger technology that uses a distributed, […]