Illinois bill plans to disrupt blockchain’s immutability aspect

• The crypto community has derided a recently introduced bill in the Illinois Senate for its “unfeasible” plans.
• The bill plans to push blockchain miners and validators to do impossible things.

The crypto community has derided a recently introduced Illinois Senate bill for its “unworkable” plans to pressure blockchain miners and validators to do impossible things, such as reverse transactions if ordered to do so by a state court.

Illinois Senator Robert Peters quietly introduced the Senate bill into the Illinois Legislature on February 9. However, it appears that the community only recently became aware of it, as Florida-based attorney Drew Hinkes talked about it on Twitter on February 19.

Titled the Digital Property Protection and Law Enforcement Act, the bill would allow courts to order a blockchain transaction conducted via a smart contract to be modified or revoked if the attorney general or a state attorney makes such a request.

The law would apply to any blockchain network that processes an Illinois-based blockchain transaction.

The bill, according to Hinkes, is the most useless state law related to blockchain and cryptocurrency that he has ever seen.

According to the bill, blockchain miners and validators who do not comply with court orders could face fines ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 per day.

“This is an amazing reversal of course for a state that was previously pro-innovation. Instead we now get possibly the most useless state law related to #crypto and #blockchain I have ever seen,” he tweeted.

Cardano creator Charles Hoskinson also took to Twitter to share that he believes it was the collapse of FTX that has led to this type of regulatory response to the entire crypto industry.

Impossible for miners to follow dictation

Although Hinkes acknowledges the importance of passing legislation to strengthen consumer protections, he stated that it would be impossible for miners and validators to comply with the bill.

Hinkes was also astonished to discover that no defense would be available to miners or validators operating on a blockchain network that had not implemented reasonably accessible procedures to comply.

The bill also appears to require anyone using a smart contract to deliver goods and services to include code in the smart contract that can be used to comply with court orders.

Under the bill, fraud and error would be two of the most common cases in which Illinois courts could order a blockchain transaction to the victim or original sender. The bill also intends to help users recover their assets if they lose their private keys.