Illinois bill plans to interfere with blockchain’s immutability aspect

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

The crypto community has mocked a recently introduced Illinois Senate Bill for its “unworkable” plans to push 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 9 February. However, it appears that the community only recently became aware of it, as Florida-based lawyer Drew Hinkes talked about it on Twitter on 19 February.

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Act, the bill would allow courts to order a blockchain transaction executed via a smart contract to be altered or rescinded if the attorney general or a state attorney makes such a request.

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

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

According to the bill, blockchain miners and validators who fail to comply with court orders may face fines ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 per day.

“This is a stunning reverse course for a state that was previously pro-innovation. Instead, we now get possibly the most unworkable state law related to #crypto and #blockchain I’ve ever seen,” he tweeted.

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

Impossible for miners to follow diktat

Though Hinkes acknowledges the importance of enacting legislation to strengthen consumer protection, he stated that it would be impossible for miners and validators to abide by the bill.

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

The bill also appears to require anyone who uses a smart contract to deliver goods and services to include code in the smart contract that can be used to abide by court orders.

According to the bill, fraud, and mistake 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 assist users in recovering their assets if they misplace their private keys.