Illinois Legislator Calls for Blockchain Working Group

A draft resolution submitted to the Illinois legislature has proposed the creation of a working group dedicated to blockchain technology.

House Resolution 120

, filed on Wednesday by state representative Michael Zalewski, would establish a 12-person group focused on researching the tech. Public records show that the resolution has been referred to the House Rules Committee for consideration.

At its heart, the draft calls for Illinois to investigate how state and local-level governments can utilize blockchain – work that is already being done, in a way, by a consortium of government agencies in the state. State officials have also developed a regulatory framework for businesses looking to work with digital currencies like bitcoin.

The resolution states:

"...the Illinois Legislative Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Task Force [will] study how and if State, county, and municipal governments can benefit from a transition to a blockchain based system for recordkeeping and service delivery…"

The text suggests a degree of synergy between that effort and the work that would be done should the legislative group be approved. Some of its members would be drawn from agencies like the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation and the the Cook County Recorder of Deeds – offices that have already begun exploring use cases of the tech.

If approved, the task force would be required to submit a detailed study to the legislative no later than 1st January of next year.

Specific areas of research would include "opportunities and risks associated with using blockchain and distributed ledger technology", as well as research into the types of public and private blockchains in existence today.

The group would also weigh "how current State laws can be modified to support secure, paperless recordkeeping", according to the measure.

Notably, the draft resolution comes days after two legislators in Hawaii called for a similar undertaking.

A full copy of the draft resolution can be found below:

Illinois 2017 HR0120 Introduced by CoinDesk on Scribd

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