The Washington state recently passed a bill which aims at protecting the legal status of electronic records related to Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) such as blockchain. Governor Jay Inslee signed the bill, substitute senate bill 5638 on April 26.

The first reading of the original bill took place on January 25, 2019. The bill will be bought into effect in late July and was passed with 96-1.

This new law involves a clause that prevents discrimination against electronic records. It states that an electronic record which is ​generated, communicated, received, or stored using distributed ledger technology may not be denied legal effect, validity, or enforceability. Even the terms “blockchain” and “distributed ledger” have been provided with legal definitions that can be referred to moving forward

The Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam in March 2018, ​signed a bill that legally recognizes the authority of blockchain technology and smart contracts in conducting electronic transactions, according to its summary.

The Ohio House Bill 220 introduced recently is also related to distributed ledgers. It aims to allow the state government to implement blockchain-aided solutions.