TheItalian state is close to having a first legal definition of DLT technologies(Distributed Ledger Technology), including blockchain, and to recognize legal value to the information stored in them.
These issues are dealt with in Article 2 of the Decree Law dubbed “decree simplifications” which will be published shortly.
Paragraph 1 defines the DLT technologies legally:
“Distributed register-based technologies” are defined as information technology and protocols that use a shared, distributed, replicable, concurrently accessible, architecturally decentralized registry on a cryptographic basis, such as to allow registration, validation, updating and archiving of data be clear and further protected by cryptography verifiable by each participant, not alterable and not modifiable.”
In paragraph 2 the legal value of the documents included in a blockchain is established as:
“… the sharing of an IT document through the use of technologies based on distributed registers producing the legal effects of the electronic time validation referred to in Article 41 of EU Regulation no. 910/2014. 910/2014.”
Paragraph 3 refers to the Agency for Digital Italy (AgID) the definition of the technical standards of DLT technology to be used for the purpose of admitting the documents stored within legal value with the legal effects of the time stamp. These standards will be set within 60 days of the conversion of the decree into law.
