North Dakota Code 9-16-19 – Signatures and records secured through blockchain technology – Smart contracts – Ownership of information – Definitions
1. A signature secured through blockchain technology is considered to be in an electronic form and to be an electronic signature.
Terms Used In North Dakota Code 9-16-19
- Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Person: means an individual, organization, government, political subdivision, or government agency or instrumentality. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
- State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
2. A record or contract secured through blockchain technology is considered to be in an electronic form and to be an electronic record.
3. Smart contracts may exist in commerce. A contract relating to a transaction may not be denied legal effect, validity, or enforceability solely because the contract contains a smart contract term.
4. Notwithstanding title 10 or chapters 41-02, 41-02.1, and 41-07, a person in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce using blockchain technology to secure information the person owns or has the right to use retains the same rights of ownership or use with respect to that information as before the person secured the information using blockchain technology. This subsection does not apply to the use of blockchain technology to secure information in connection with a transaction to the extent the terms of the transaction expressly provide for the transfer of rights of ownership or use with respect to that information.
5. As used in this subsection:
a. “Blockchain technology” means distributed ledger technology that uses a distributed, decentralized, shared, and replicated ledger, which may be public or private, permissioned or permissionless, or driven by tokenized cryptoeconomics or tokenless and which is protected with cryptography, is immutable, and auditable and provides an uncensored truth.
b. “Smart contract” means an event-driven program, with state, that runs on a distributed, decentralized, shared, and replicated ledger and which can take custody over and instruct transfer of assets on that ledger.