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Blockchain technology is on the rise again in 2018. Two new bills in the US have already been presented this month. While one is about data security, the other is designed to fight the illegal financing of terrorism.

A new bill, presented to the Colorado Senate, provides for the use of blockchain technology to protect private data from cyber-attacks. The bill introduced by the Senate on 16 January stipulates that the use of Distributed Ledger eliminates the need for paper records and the personal updating of such data. The blockchain system will then resolve the existing data collection and retention issues of the state and create a more secure record. Upon adoption of the law, the Colorado Chief Information Officer would be required to evaluate the costs and benefits of using distributed ledgers in various government systems and to determine Blockchain’s ability to handle cyberattacks compared to traditional computer systems.

In 2017, there were between six and eight million attempted intrusions into the state of Colorado’s digital platforms every day, according to the bill. Many government-maintained records are unsecured and therefore “valuable targets for identity thieves and hackers intent on stealing corporate data.” The bill states that there are more and more threats to steal personal information.

In addition, the bill indicated that Colorado is currently obliging citizens to visit government agencies in person to change their information. This condition could be solved using a blockchain system.

“Blockchains provide the power to openly track transactions while preserving the privacy of every person who transacts the transactions.”

Bill against terrorist financing

Another bill, on the other hand, has a different purpose. The goal is to combat the use of cryptocurrencies for terrorism. The new law of 10 January seeks to combat terrorism by offering rewards for information. This should lead to convictions of cryptocurrency based terrorism. The bill, which was submitted to Congress by House Financial Services Committee MP Ted Budd (R-NC), proposes an Independent Financial Technology Task Force to distribute the rewards. However, the amount of these rewards was not mentioned in dollars or in crypto currency.

The second section of the draft is:

“It is the purpose of the Congress that the Federal Government prioritize the investigation of the terrorist and illegal use of new financial technologies, including digital currencies.”

The FinTech Task Force is staffed and chaired by the Minister of Finance, five federal directors and four individuals from think tanks, nonprofit organizations and the banking industry. The bill also calls for the creation of a FinTech Leadership in Innovation Fund to uncover the development of programs and methods to detect digital currency usage among terrorists. This fund could provide grants to universities, businesses, non-governmental organizations and individuals contributing to the research of anti-terrorist tools.

Despite increasing regulatory attention to cryptocurrency-funded terrorism, a June 2017 European Union report found that terrorists still favor Fiat over digital currencies. The tracking potential of blockchain records could be a possible cause.

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