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Professor testifies for UCC update to cover digital assets and virtual currency (SB 167)
Summary
Legal scholars urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to adopt UCC amendments that modernize commercial law for digital assets and virtual currencies, adopting model Article 12 language already enacted in other states.
Professor Carl Bier testified by remote connection in favor of Senate Bill 167, which would amend Oregon's Uniform Commercial Code to clarify commercial transactions involving digital assets and virtual currencies.
"This bill makes changes to state law governing commerce in order to take it, take account of new types of business transactions, notably, including virtual currencies," Bier said. He explained the amendments adopt the national model (UCC Article 12) to provide clearer rules for use of virtual currency as collateral, priority rules tied to control, and modernization of drafting terms such as replacing "writing" with "record" and expanding "sign" to include electronic signatures.
Bier said the 2022 UCC amendments the bill would adopt have already been enacted in 25 states, including California and Washington. He said the changes are designed to bring property-rights clarity to owners, buyers and secured lenders who use digital assets and to align Oregon law with national practice.
Senators asked technical questions about the bill's definition of money and whether a future nation's adoption of an electronic currency as legal tender would be captured; Bier said the drafting aims to avoid surprising results if a foreign jurisdiction declares an electronic medium to be legal tender and that the provision is intentionally narrow and technical.
Ending: Professor Bier answered senators' technical questions and the committee closed the public hearing with no additional witnesses on the list.
