Ghana’s Vice President Says His Government Aims to Become the First to Be Powered by Blockchain

May 14, 2024 Bitcoin.com

‘Unworkable’ bill to ban blockchain immutability is introduced in Illinois

February 20, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Alter

Florida-based lawyer Drew Hinkes described the bill as “the most unworkable state law” related to blockchain and cryptocurrency that he has ever seen.

A recently introduced Illinois Senate Bill has been ridiculed by the crypto community over its "unworkable" plans to force blockchain miners and validators to do "impossible things" — such as reversing transactions if ordered to do so by a state court.

The Senate Bill was quietly introduced into the Illinois legislature on Feb. 9 by Illinois Senator Robert Peters but appears to have been only recently noticed by Florida-based lawyer Drew Hinkes who discussed the bill in a Twitter post on Feb. 19.

The bill titled the “Digital Property Protection and Law Enforcement Act,” would authorize the courts — upon a valid request from the Attorney General or a State's Attorney that is made pursuant to the laws of Illinois — to order a blockchain transaction that is executed via a smart contract to be altered or rescinded.

The act would apply to any "blockchain network that processes a blockchain transaction originating in the State."

*Senator Robert Peter’s bill to ban immutability on blockchains. Source:* *Illinois General Assembly.*

Hinkes described the bill as “the most unworkable state law” related to blockchain and cryptocurrency that he has ever seen.

"This is a stunning reverse course for a state that was previously pro -innovation. Instead we now get possibly the most unworkable state law related to #crypto and #blockchain I’ve ever seen," he said.

The bill states that any blockchain miners and validators may be fined between $5,000-10,000 for each day that they fail to comply with court orders.

While acknowledging the need to implement bills that strengthen consumer protection, Hinkes said it would be “impossible” for miners and validators to comply with the bill proposed by Senator Peters.

SB1887 focuses on consumer protection (this is GOOD). But, the manner in which it seeks to protect consumers is to require #node operators ##miners & #validators to do impossible things, or things that create for themselves new criminal & civil liability at pain of fines/ fees /3
— Drew Hinkes (@propelforward) February 19, 2023

Hinkes was also shocked to see that “no defense” would be available to miners or validators that operated on a blockchain network that “has not adopted reasonable available procedures” to comply with the court orders.

The bill also appears to mandate "any person using a smart contract to deliver goods and services" to include code in the smart contract which can be used to comply with court orders.

“Any person using a smart contract to deliver goods or services in this State shall include smart contract code capable of enforcing court orders regarding the smart contract.”

If you thought that was bad. Get ready to #Illinoize your blockchain! Yes, #Illinois is going to force you to re-write your blockchain- specifically by including smart contract code capable of responding to court orders. And if you don’t, you can be sued /10
— Drew Hinkes (@propelforward) February 19, 2023

Other members of the cryptocurrency community have responded with similar ridicule of the bill proposed by Peters.

Crypto analyst “foobar” noted to his 120,800 Twitter followers on Feb. 19 that court ordered transactions would need to — somehow — be amended “without needing the private key” of the participants, which he considered to be “hilarious.”

this is hilarious, Illinois is proposing a bill that would make miners & validators “respond to a court order by including transactions on the blockchain without needing the private key”

why are you refusing to comply, transfer satoshi’s bitcoin to governor pritzker! off to jail https://t.co/7JcpktWMgH pic.twitter.com/FPKLsFNE3e
— foobar (@0xfoobar) February 19, 2023

Gabriel Shapiro, lawyer and general counsel at investment firm Delphi Labs explained very briefly to his 34,100 Twitter followers on Feb. 19 that the bill would essentially try to ban immutability on blockchains:

TLDR--they are trying to ban immutability https://t.co/HSg00pcFHx
— _gabrielShapir0 (@lex_node) February 19, 2023

Meanwhile, Carla Reyes, assistant professor at Southern Methodist University School of Law in a Feb. 19 tweet, stated that lawmakers should only introduce bills if they understand how the technology works.

While immutability is a common property in blockchains and distributed ledgers, the Peters-sponsored bill explained that such networks lack an enforcement mechanism that can be tapped into by the courts:

“As a result, the cost to enforce legal rights in digital property is often prohibitive such that the property rights cannot be vindicated and the vast majority of blockchain crimes go unpunished.”

Fraud and mistake would be two of the most commonly used cases where Illinois courts may order for a blockchain transaction to the victim or original sender, the bill noted.

The bill also wants to help users recover their assets if they lose their private keys.

While the bill was only introduced on Feb. 9, it will need to be "read" and voted in by three separate committee hearings before being passed on to Illinois Governor Jay Pritzker to officially sign the bill into law.

The first reading took place on the same day it was introduced into the Illinois General Assembly by Peters.

If it is ever passed, the contents of the bill would take effect 30 days after becoming law.

Blockchain-based supply chain platform canned by IBM and Maersk

November 30, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Adoption

Although the TradeLens platform will officially go offline in Q1 2023, Maersk said it's not given up its effort to digitize the supply chain industry.

United States technology company IBM and Danish logistics firm Maersk have decided to discontinue their co-developed blockchain-backed supply chain platform, TradeLens, citing a lack of “global industry collaboration” as a key reason behind the decision.

Maersk stated on Nov. 29 that it has begun taking immediate action to cease operations on the platform which should take full effect by Q1 2023:

“The TradeLens team is taking action to withdraw the offerings and discontinue the platform [...] During this process all parties involved will ensure that customers are attended to without disruptions to their businesses.”

While the blockchain-based shipping solution was introduced by the two firms in August 2018 to help industry participants adopt more efficient international supply chain practices, Maersk stated the platform didn’t reach a level of “commercial viability” to sustain operations:

“While we successfully developed a viable platform, the need for full global industry collaboration has not been achieved," said Maersk's head of business platforms, Rotem Hershko. "As a result, TradeLens has not reached the level of commercial viability necessary to continue work and meet the financial expectations as an independent business.”

Maersk said the firm would continue its efforts to digitize the supply chain and increase industry innovation through alternative solutions to achieve the desired ends that were envisioned through TradeLens.

TradeLens functioned by tracking and processing critical supply chain data of each shipment in real-time, before stamping a distributed and immutable record of events on-chain for all involved participants to access and validate.

Despite TradeLens not reaching the heights that IBM and Marersk first envisioned, the two companies managed to onboard over 150 companies onto the supply chain-focused blockchain which included a host of port operators, shipping companies and logistics providers.

Among those companies were two of the world’s largest container carriers, CMA CGM and Mediterranean Shipping Company, which integrated the system in October 2020.

The discontinuation of TradeLens comes as data from IBM claims the platform saved users an estimated 20% in documentation costs and reduced the time it takes to ship goods by 40%.

According to Statista, blockchain technology makes keeping data records easier, more transparent, and more secure mostly due to its immutable nature.

Despite this, several shortcomings continue to stall blockchain adoption in the supply chain world, including high transaction costs, privacy concerns, scalability issues and lack of industry collaboration, as evidenced by the lagging adoption of TradeLens.

Immutability