Washington state bill pushes for blockchain task force and digital certificates

The Washington state Senate heard testimony Wednesday in a virtual hearing on the bills that would create a blockchain task force and require the state technology office to develop a plan for the development of a network of digital certificates.

The proposed bills were introduced on Monday and then brought to committee, asking a panel of state officials, lawmakers and trade group representatives to draft recommendations on how blockchain could be applied to state government operations and digital services .

Distributed digital ledger technology has attracted a lot of attention from the public and private sectors over the past few years, most notably in support of cryptocurrencies.

Under the bill, the state's IT office, health and licensing departments, state secretaries and institutions of higher education will need to determine where digital, verifiable credentials are useful. The reports are due by December 1. The bill also requires the state's primary IT agency, Washington Technology Solutions (WaTech), to establish by October the development process for a statewide digital trust framework for issuing and validating government certificates. The bill would require the agency to work with other agencies, industry groups and the private sector.