An Ohio bill affirming the legal status of blockchain signatures and contracts has become law.
In May, Ohio Senator Matt Dolan submitted to the state legislature a bill[1] intended to clarify the legal status of blockchain signatures and contracts. The bill, SB300[2], failed to advance but portions of its language were inserted as amendments into another bill, SB220[3], which is concerned with cybersecurity and has now become law in the state.
SB220 was passed by the Senate in May and by the House in June, and had been awaiting a decision from the governor until Friday, when John Kasich finally announced[4] he had signed the bill.
Dolan's bill, SB300, would have made five major changes to current Ohio statutes. It would have defined "blockchain technology" and "smart contracts." It also would have specified that a person who places information they own on the blockchain maintains the same ownership rights as they had before doing so, and that electronic records and signatures secured through blockchain technology are valid electronic signatures.
When interviewed last month, Dolan said the legislature might "scale back on some of that language." That appears to have happened. Three of the five proposed changes, which would have been substantial, died with SB300, while two modest provisions were allowed to live on in the form of amendments to SB220. These were the sections regarding the legal validity of blockchain contracts and signatures.
The full language that survived intact is:
"A record or contract that is secured through blockchain technology is considered to be in an electronic form and to be an electronic record."
and
"A signature that is secured through blockchain technology is considered to be in
