The state of Delaware is proposing amendments to new legislation that would enable corporations to use distributed ledgers for record-keeping purposes and to keep track of stock transactions.
The new rules would provide specific statutory authority for Delaware corporations to use distributed ledgers for the creation and maintenance of corporate records, including the corporation’s stock ledger.
Slated for an upcoming vote in the state Senate, the amended legislation document states: "Any records maintained administered by a or on behalf of the corporation in the regular course of its business, including its stock ledger, books of account, and minute books, may be kept on, or by means of, or be in the form of, any information storage device, or method , or one or more electronic networks or databases (including one or more distributed electronic networks or databases), provided that the records so kept can be converted into clearly legible paper form within a reasonable time. Any corporation shall so , and, with respect to the stock ledger, that the records so kept can be used to prepare the list of stockholders."
If passed, the re-write of Delaware’s General Corporation Law (DGCL) could pave the way for the use of DLT for proxy-voting.