Tennessee enacted a law yesterday that recognizes “the legal authority to use blockchain technology and smart contracts in conducting electronic transactions.” Under the new legislation, “A signature that is secured through blockchain technology is considered to be in an electronic form and to be an electronic signature.”
With respect to smart contracts, the law defines it as “an event-driven program, that runs on a distributed, decentralized, shared, and replicated ledger and that can take custody over and instruct transfer of assets on that ledger.” And the law states that “no contract relating to a transaction shall be denied legal effect, validity, or enforceability solely because that contract contains a smart contract term.”
Arizona became the first U.S. state to legalize smart contracts, in 2017.
