Blockchain and the Law
Primavera De Filippi is a permanent researcher at the CERSA/CNRS/Universite Paris II and a faculty associate at Harvard Law School's Berkman-Klein Center for Internet & Society. Aaron Wright is an associate clinical professor of law and the director of the Blockchain Project at Yeshiva University's Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.
Since its inception in 2009, Bitcoin has been both lauded as an Internet marvel and derided as the favored transaction mechanism for all manner of crooks. It has perplexed practically everyone who does not have a computer science degree: How do you "mine" money from ones and zeros?
The answer rests in blockchain technology, which can be used for much more than Bitcoin. Blockchain technology, a general-purpose tool for developing secure, decentralized, peer-to-peer applications, has been compared in both form and significance to the Internet itself. Some believe this tool has the potential to transform civilization as we know it. Blockchains are being used to develop autonomous computer programs known as "smart contracts," which are used to speed up payments, generate financial instruments, organize data and information sharing, and facilitate interactions between humans and machines. Technology may have an impact on governance by facilitating new organizational structures that foster more democratic and participative decision making.
Primavera De Filippi and Aaron Wright recognize this potential and advocate for the law to catch up. This is because disintermediation, a blockchain's most valuable asset, undermines crucial regulation. Blockchains risk weakening political authorities' ability to supervise activity in banking, commerce, law, and other critical areas by eliminating middlemen like as huge online operators and multinational enterprises. De Filippi and Wright are excited about the new possibilities that blockchains provide. However, as Blockchain and the Law demonstrates, the technology cannot be used constructively until new laws and ways to legal thought are developed.
Author: Primavera De Filippi
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