A New Bill Was Just Proposed to the Colorado Senate That Advocates Using Blockchain for State Data Security

Lawmakers in Colorado, United States just introduced legislation to the Senate that proposes utilizing blockchain technology to secure private data from cyberattacks.

Senate Bill 086 strongly urges Colorado’s Office of Information Technology, the Department of State, and the Department of Regulatory Agencies to review use cases for blockchain and encryption technologies throughout the state.

The bill suggests that using a distributed ledger would solve the state’s existing data collection and retention issues, while also ensuring a more secure record. Moving records to the blockchain system would eliminate a need for paper records, which are easily lost or destroyed. It would also allow Coloradans to conveniently update data online instead of in person.

The bill states:

An important function of state government is to protect state records containing trusted information about individuals, organizations, assets, and activities from criminal, unauthorized, or inadvertent manipulation or theft. In addition, there are increasing threats to the theft of personal privacy information within government data and a growing number of threats to networks, critical infrastructure, and private data and devices.

In 2017, there were somewhere between 6 and 8 million attempted breaches of the Colorado state government’s digital platforms per day. Utilizing blockchain to protect private data would be incredibly valuable for the Rocky Mountain State. Since blockchain is immutable, nobody would be able to alter or tamper with data once it has been stored.

“Blockchain distributed ledgers provide the capability of openly traceable transactions while maintaining the privacy of each person performing the transactions,” the Senate bill explains.

This new legislation makes Colorado one of just a small handful of states working to adopt blockchain technology in government systems and programs—the others being New York, Delaware, Arizona, and Illinois. Should the adoption of the ultra-secure technology prove to be valuable for these states, it would be no surprise to see a lot more states adopting blockchain for security reasons in 2018.