Blockchain Records and Transactions Act of 2020

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 8524 To amend the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act to clarify the applicability of such Act to electronic records, electronic signatures, and smart contracts created, stored, or secured on or through a blockchain, to provide uniform national standards regarding the legal effect, validity, and enforceability of such records, signatures, and con- tracts, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OCTOBER 2, 2020 Mr. SCHWEIKERT (for himself and Mr. SOTO) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce A BILL To amend the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act to clarify the applicability of such Act to electronic records, electronic signatures, and smart contracts created, stored, or secured on or through a blockchain, to provide uniform national standards regard- ing the legal effect, validity, and enforceability of such records, signatures, and contracts, and for other pur- poses. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:31 Oct 30, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8524.IH H8524 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 8524 IH SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Blockchain Records 2 and Transactions Act of 2020’’. 3 SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS TO ELECTRONIC SIGNATURES IN 4 GLOBAL AND NATIONAL COMMERCE ACT. 5 (a) VALIDITY OF ELECTRONIC RECORDS, ELEC- 6 TRONIC SIGNATURES, AND SMART CONTRACTS USING 7 BLOCKCHAIN.—Section 101(a) of the Electronic Signa- 8 tures in Global and National Commerce Act (15 U.S.C. 9 7001(a)) is amended— 10 (1) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘; and’’ and 11 inserting a semicolon; 12 (2) in paragraph (2), by striking the period at 13 the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 14 (3) by adding at the end the following: 15 ‘‘(3) an electronic record, electronic signature, 16 or smart contract may not be denied legal effect, va- 17 lidity, or enforceability solely because it is created, 18 stored, or secured on or through a blockchain.’’. 19 (b) EXEMPTION TO PREEMPTION.—Section 102 of 20 the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Com- 21 merce Act (15 U.S.C. 7002) is amended— 22 (1) in subsection (a)— 23 (A) in the heading, by striking ‘‘IN GEN- 24 ERAL’’ and inserting ‘‘ELECTRONIC RECORDS 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:31 Oct 30, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8524.IH H8524 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 8524 IH AND ELECTRONIC SIGNATURES GENERALLY’’; 1 and 2 (B) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), 3 by inserting ‘‘, except for paragraph (3) of sec- 4 tion 101(a),’’ after ‘‘the provisions of section 5 101’’; 6 (2) by redesignating subsections (b) and (c) as 7 subsections (c) and (d), respectively; and 8 (3) by inserting after subsection (a) the fol- 9 lowing: 10 ‘‘(b) ELECTRONIC RECORDS, ELECTRONIC SIGNA- 11 TURES, AND SMART CONTRACTS USING BLOCKCHAIN.— 12 A State statute, regulation, or other rule of law may mod- 13 ify, limit, or supersede paragraph (3) of section 101(a) 14 with respect to State law only if such statute, regulation, 15 or rule of law is substantially similar to such paragraph.’’. 16 (c) DEFINITIONS.—Section 106 of the Electronic Sig- 17 natures in Global and National Commerce Act (15 U.S.C. 18 7006) is amended— 19 (1) by redesignating paragraphs (12) and (13) 20 as paragraphs (14) and (15), respectively; 21 (2) by redesignating paragraphs (1) through 22 (11) as paragraphs (2) through (12), respectively; 23 (3) by inserting before paragraph (2) (as so re- 24 designated) the following: 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:31 Oct 30, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8524.IH H8524 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 8524 IH ‘‘(1) BLOCKCHAIN.—The term ‘blockchain’ 1 means software that uses a distributed digital ledger 2 of cryptographically signed transactions that are 3 grouped into blocks, each of which— 4 ‘‘(A) is cryptographically linked to the pre- 5 vious block after validation and undergoing a 6 consensus decision; and 7 ‘‘(B) when added as a new block, makes 8 any older blocks more difficult to modify and is 9 replicated across all copies of the ledger within 10 the relevant network, with any conflicts in such 11 blocks resolved automatically using established 12 rules.’’; and 13 (4) by inserting after paragraph (12) (as so re- 14 designated) the following: 15 ‘‘(13) SMART CONTRACT.—The term ‘smart 16 contract’ means a computer program that reflects an 17 agreement, in whole or in part, between two or more 18 parties to execute transactions automatically based 19 on the occurrence of agreed-upon events.’’. 20 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:31 Oct 30, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H8524.IH H8524 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS