A new bill has been proposed in Hawaii which would allow banks to hold blockchain and other digital assets. According to the bill, a new chapter would be added to title 22, despite the assets not necessarily being viewed as “legal tender” by the United States government.
Most of the bill, discovered by CoinDesk, defines virtual assets, digital assets, and why they are useful. From there, the bill states that they shall be classified in the following three ways:
- “(1) Digital consumer assets are intangible personal property and shall be considered general intangibles, as defined in section 490:9-102, only for the purposes of article 9 of chapter 490;
- (2) Digital securities are intangible personal property and shall be considered securities, as defined in section 490:8-102, and investment property, as defined in section 490:9-102, only for the purposes of articles 8 and 9 of chapter 490; and
- (3) Virtual currency is intangible personal property and shall be considered money, notwithstanding section 490:1-201, only for the purposes of article 9 of chapter 490.”
Because of those definitions, this bill, if passed, would ensure that “a bank providing custodial services under chapter 556A” would possibly allow it to manage digital assets as well. However, as mentioned, a user’s assets would still be considered “intangible personal property.”
Furthermore, the bill defines what a private key is, and how that would be held by a person and used to manage their digital assets.
