New Hampshire can play “leading role” in promoting blockchain, report says
New Hampshire should play a “leading role” in promoting blockchain and cryptocurrency and encouraging their use, but said lawmakers must be “proactive” in regulating the technology, according to a report issued last week.
The final report of the Governor’s Commission on Cryptocurrencies and Digital Assets said blockchain “appears to be an important technical innovation” that can be applied across society and the economy. The report noted that the decentralized nature of blockchain and crypto is one of its advantages, although it still has a disadvantage compared to more centralized operations, including slow execution of transactions and non-transparent operating systems.
In an effort to help New Hampshire leverage blockchain, the report recommended the state establish a task force to examine how the technology can be used to improve systems for filing and storing official government records. The commission said blockchain could make government processes more efficient and effective, while the technology could better protect data and reduce the risk of fraud and abuse.
The report said record processes such as filings of accounts under the state’s Uniform Commercial Code, real estate deeds, registrations and other title documents could all benefit from blockchain, but since they are central to the functioning of public and private markets, any changes should be made. after careful investigation and with buy-in from the relevant agencies. Commissioners recommended that the governor and the state legislature order state agencies to conduct reviews of how blockchain could “reform and improve current processes.”
The potential for blockchain-based records management echoes a report late last year by the Texas Work Group on Blockchain Matters, which said the technology could help usher in an era of smart contracts and help preserve property records at the local level, among other things.
But to embrace blockchain and other emerging technologies, the New Hampshire report recommended that the state should be “proactive” in regulating the space, especially as current state and federal rules are unclear. This “lack of clarity,” the report said, “is an obstacle to the development and growth of Blockchain technologies, products and services, and therefore harms the development of new economic activities that can benefit citizens through new products, services and jobs. “
In response, state laws and policies should play a “robust role” in regulating blockchain and crypto, the report said, and it called on New Hampshire to establish a better legal system for the technologies. It included a call for the state to clarify the legal status of decentralized autonomous organizations, establish what the report described as a “Blockchain Dispute Docket” in the New Hampshire Superior Court to help resolve specialized issues, and enact updates to the Uniform Commercial Code to better regulate transactions.
The report also called for the creation of a legislative standing committee to investigate any problems arising under current state securities laws, and under any federal laws that may develop in the future.
In a statement, Gov. Chris Sununu said the report’s recommendations “would establish New Hampshire as a leading jurisdiction for the development of sound and effective applications of blockchain technologies.”
