The States Can't Blockchain

Published on by Coindesk | Published on

"Uncensored truth." What the hell does that even mean? Anyone who has a passing familiarity with blockchains will know that blockchains can't guarantee an "Uncensored truth" as they only show the transactions that validators committed to the chain.

Which doesn't define "Blockchains" but, in a bill about state records, just refers to them in plain English.

The short story here is that someone managed to convince a member of the state house to introduce a bill that would abolish non-compete clauses in employment contracts where a "Blockchain" company was one of the counterparties.

Apart from being very anti-business, the bill also proposes a definition of "Blockchain" so broad that it would capture practically any contract with any employee of any company that employs distributed software architecture of any kind.

"May include supporting infrastructure, including blockchain technology, that uses a distributed, decentralized, shared and replicated ledger, whether public or private, permissioned or permissionless, and that may include the use of electronic currencies or electronic tokens as a medium of electronic storage."

Not all distributed systems are "Decentralized," either, despite the fact that the bill defines a blockchain system as "Distributed and decentralized." Similarly, not all blockchain systems are decentralized.

Summing up, state legislatures have proved only one thing with bills that define "Blockchain" incorrectly: that they don't understand the technology.

If states want to promote the use of blockchain tech, they need to be advised by people who possess a solid technical understanding of what they're trying to legislate, the commercial issues involved in deploying that technology, how to speak clearly about both of those things, and who are independent and disinterested.

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