From Monkey JPEG to Real Justice: NFTs Spearhead the Battle Against Crypto Criminals
Can justice be served through NFTs? The UK High Court said Y.E.S!
On January 30, 2023, the UK High Court ruled that proceedings may be served exclusively by non-fungible token (NFT) where no other method of service is available.
For victims of crypto crimes, NFTs could become a highly needed beacon of hope.
Here’s the case that allowed this breakthrough.
In the case of Osbourne v Persons Unknown Category A, Mrs Osbourne, fell victim to a hack when two of her NFTs (Boss Beauties #680 & #681) were transferred out of one of her wallets, she then employed a digital assets tracing company Mitmark to help locate her NFTs.
They were traced back to a number of wallets linked to different accounts with Opensea.
So she served first the claim form on Opensea via email:
Subsequently, Mitmark discovered additional evidence indicating that one of the NFTs had been moved to a different wallet.
As a result, Mrs. Osbourne attempted to expand the injunction.
Unable to identify the prospective defendants, she asked (and received) permission from the Court to serve the amended claim form by NFT that would contain embedded hyperlinks to the court documents.
The High Court Judgement says at paragraph 47:
“In the present case, the evidence was that, with the exception of service by email on the Fourth Defendant, the Claimant had no other available method of service on the Defendants of the Amended Claim Form, the Amended Particulars of Claim and my order and supporting documents except service by NFT sent to the relevant wallets. In my judgment, that was a good reason for authorising service of these documents by NFT.
Accordingly, I ordered that the Claimant could serve these documents: (1) on the First Defendants, by the transfer to Wallet ending Cd32 of an NFT containing an embedded hyperlink which directs to the documents; (2) on the Third Defendants: (a) in the case of the current possessor of BB#680, by the transfer of such an NFT to the E29269 User Wallet; and (b) in the case of the current possessor of BB#691, by the transfer of such an NFT to Wallet 8f3C; and (3) on the Fourth Defendant: (a) by the transfer of such an NFT to Wallet 8f3C; and (b) by email to the Email Address”
This latest ruling confirms a rising trend towards the use of alternative court orders as the norm in crypto-related litigation.
In the past, the English court had authorized the service of documents via NFT and email in the D’Aloia v Persons Unknown and Jones v Persons Unknown cases.
While in the Osbourne case, the court has allowed the service of documents solely via NFT, but only for specific defendants.
In terms of global precedent, the Osbourne decision aligns with the New York Supreme Court’s ruling in LCX AG v. John Doe Nos. 1–25, which permitted plaintiffs to deliver legal documents by using NFT airdrop into the anonymous defendants’ wallet.
In the Ooki DAO VS CFTC case, court orders papers were delivered through a chatbot!
Bringing to justice anonymous and/or decentralized entities brings its lot of challenges that jurisdictions throughout the world are taking head on!
These cases are a web3 and judiciary adaptation of “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”
With one shared aim, reminding everyone that no one is beyond the reach of justice!
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