Blockchain Briefing
High Level Links about Blockchain Technology — Especially for Legal Professionals
Blockchain Working Demo
Thanks to Anders Brownworth for creating this open source demo and supporting reuse by CIVICS.com as a law+technology teaching tool.
What is a “Hash”?
What is a “Block”?
What is a “Blockchain”?
What does “Distributed” mean?
What are “Tokens”?
What is “Coinbase”?
Blockchain for Lawyers
Popular media breaking it down in a way relevant to lawyers and other legal professionals:
- Lawyers Get Ready, There’s a Blockchain Coming
- The Two Topics in Law and Blockchain
- Who Controls the Blockchain?
Relevant Legislation & Statutes
Federal Legislative Definition
US House: A collaboration between law.MIT.edu and the US House on developing legislative definitions of “blockchain” and “distributed ledger technologies and systems
Enacted US Federal and Uniform State Law
The general (default) legal status of electronic signatures, contracts and other records has been established in the United States through UETA (uniform state law) and ESIGN (federal law), both of which are implementations of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Commerce.
- Federal Law: Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (ESIGN): https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-106publ229/html/PLAW-106publ229.htm
- Uniform State Law: Uniform Electronic Transaction Act (UETA): http://www.uniformlaws.org/Act.aspx?title=Electronic%20Transactions%20Act
Pending State Legislation
- State Bill: Nevada (SB 398): establishes various provisions relating to the use of blockchain technology. (Link to bill)
- State Bill: Arizona (H B 2417): signatures; electronic transactions; blockchain technology — Signed into law April 3, 2017. (Link to bill)
Blockchain for Legal Notice and Publicly Verifiable Evidentiary Records
- Article: Law Itself is the Killer Blockchain App
- Working Code: The OpenTimestamps Blockchain Service
- Blockchain Evidence: Prosecuting Crimes
General Digital Transactions Law
International Model Law
- Model Law: International Model Law on E-Commerce http://www.uncca.org/working-groups/working-group-iv
- Model Law: A/CN.9/897 — Report of Working Group IV (Electronic Commerce) on the work of its fifty-fourth session: https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/V16/097/10/PDF/V1609710.pdf?OpenElement
Transferable Records
The legal validity of Electronic Transferable Records (e.g. legally validating the use of electronic records for negotiable instruments, warehouse receipts, etc) was explicitly established in UETA and ESIGN but significant business, legal and technology uncertainty remains about more specific practices and rules needed to support stable use and reliance at wide-scale.
- Model Law: Continung work by UNCITRAL on next-phase model international law by the Working Group on Electronic Transferable Records: http://www.uncitral.org/uncitral/en/commission/working_groups/4Electronic_Commerce.html
- Legal Hack: Identifying issues and options through Massachusetts Legal Hackers: Rapid Prototyping Blockchain-Based Electronic Transferable Records
Digital Signatures, Contracts and Records
Law defining and governing digital signatures, electronic contracts, automated transactions and other electronic records or processes is important overarching legal context applicable to blockchain technology.
Building Blocks of Legal Identity and Enforceable Signatures
- Book: Electronic Signatures in Law (4th edition, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies for the SAS Humanities Digital Library, School of Advanced Study, University of London, 2016) http://ials.sas.ac.uk/digital/humanities-digital-library/observing-law-ials-open-book-service-law/electronic-signatures
- Research: Blockchain as Key Legal Identity Cross-Boundary Infrastructure Service
- Legal Hack: Modern Blockchain-Based Digital Signature Prototype: Massachusetts Legal Hackers Mock Trial
- Report: In the 1990’s, the ABA Digital Signature Guidelines provided a conceptual framework for legally understanding and working with cryptographically based digital signatures. This document provides an excellent overview of how hash digests and public-private key cryptography can be used to legally execute a digital signature, though some of the more speculative content about a possible role of “trusted third party” new models of business to provide “certification authority” functions did not pan out.
Evidence of Electronic Signatures and Records
- Book: Electronic Evidence (4th edition, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies for the SAS Humanities Digital Library, School of Advanced Study, University of London, 2017) http://ials.sas.ac.uk/digital/humanities-digital-library/observing-law-ials-open-book-service-law/electronic-evidence
- Journal: Digital Evidence and Electronic Signature Law Review http://journals.sas.ac.uk/deeslr (also available in the LexisNexis and HeinOnline electronic databases)
Help Make This (even) Better
- Suggest improvements in the GitHub Repo
- Enjoy the GitHub Pages version
The above article is based on the content outline of a CIVICS.com briefing I provided earlier today for in-house counsel of General Electric, a wonderful innovation company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.
