During the pandemic, New York's notary laws were exposed for what they were—an archaic hold-over that permitted only in-person notarization of paper documents with ink signatures. New York, the world's commercial capital, had ignored 20 years of technological advances and fallen behind the other 38 states that authorized secure notarization of electronic documents (e-notarization) and allowed notaries to remotely "meet" and accurately identify signers online. New York notarial law, which was also virtually unregulated, had stagnated while an epidemic of paper deed fraud raged.