On Aug. 8, New Jersey became the latest state to pass a bill creating a task force to study the distributed ledger technology known as blockchain.
It's one of several in the past few years that have taken similar actions. By our count, New Jersey makes the eighth state to create a blockchain task force or working group since 2016. Here are the details:
California
After Assembly Bill 2658 created a blockchain working group last year, the Government Operations Agency appointed the group's members.Connecticut
The state's 2018 bill requires the Department of Economic and Community Development to form a blockchain working group.Florida
The Florida Legislature passed Senate Bill 1024 in May, and the governor signed it into law a few days later.Illinois
Illinois was an early blockchain researcher, forming a task force in 2016. That task force submitted its report on the technology at the beginning of 2018.New Jersey
In August, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed S. 2297 into law, creating a task force "to study whether state, county and municipal governments can benefit from a transition to a blockchain-based system for recordkeeping and service delivery."New York
At the end of last year, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill establishing a task force that will submit a report on cryptocurrencies and blockchain by the end of 2020.North Carolina
In July, North Carolina Lt. Gov. Dan Forest convened a blockchain working group to examine possible applications of the technology in state government.North Dakota
The state legislature passed House Concurrent Resolution 3004 in 2019, which directed Legislative Management to study how blockchain could be used in state government and submit its findings next legislative session.Wyoming
Wyoming legislators slipped a provision into the state's 2018 appropriations bill that established a blockchain task force focused on developing policy recommendations for the statehouse to consider.Did we miss any? Send other reports of state blockchain groups to bmiller@govtech.com.
