Pause the Blockchain Legal Revolution

Abstract

When bitcoin was released by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008, few could have predicted that it would attract as much attention as it has today. It has spawned a veritable host of other cryptocurrencies, including ether on the upstart Ethereum network, which boasts smart contract functionality. The underlying blockchain technology has also attracted attention, with some within the blockchain community suggesting that it can solve such diverse problems as secured digital voting to tracking food provenance. In the legal context, blockchains have been envisaged as capable of revolutionising registries for assets ranging from land to intellectual property, modernising clearing and settlement, and even fundamentally transforming the contracting process. This article critically evaluates the popular claims surrounding the potential of blockchain technologies to disrupt the legal system by separating hype from fact.

The Blockchain Oracle Problem in Decentralized Finance - A Multivocal Approach

“…The potential of Blockchain was also sought to be useful for other activities than just providing a mechanism for the transfer of currency [37] then, a new platform, Ethereum, was specifically developed to enable for the execution of 'programs' on the blockchain, which were coined "smart contracts" [38]. Smart contracts were conceptualized by Nick Szabo and refer to deterministic programs with characteristics of transparency and immutability [39,40]. Smart contracts enabled decentralized applications (dApps) to be developed, allowing for traditional web systems to provide decentralized functionality [41].…”

“…Connecting the blockchain with a centralized point of failure, such as an oracle, would arguably cause a loss of decentralization [56]. This conundrum is known as "the oracle problem" and affects all the real-world blockchain applications, and depending upon the sector and oracle type, different consequences may emerge [16,40,57]. There are actually many circumstances for which an oracle may fail in providing reliable data.…”

Towards Smart Port Infrastructures: Enhancing Port Activities Using Information and Communications Technology

“…Collaboration can also be made with inland depots. In addition, legal issues would need to be addressed to ensure appropriate compliance as it may be complex due to locality with differing governing laws and jurisdiction clause [89], [90]. Hence, further investigation could be pursued to design and deploy essential applications and the underlying digital back-end that enable an effective collaboration platform for achieving a win-win collaboration.…”

Is code law? Current legal and technical adoption issues and remedies for blockchain-enabled smart contracts

“…Both their settlement process and execution involve a rather lengthy process with multiple parties whereby clearing and settlements often takes several days to be processed (Egelund-Müller et al, 2017). Using smart contracts instead, the execution and settlement of swaps could potentially be fully automated and executed without delay (Low and Mik, 2020). However, despite the technical feasibility and numerous successful proof of concepts, this example has not yet gone live on a meaningfully large scale.…”

“…In consequence, this could establish an unprecedented level of trust and market integrity, a critical ingredient for any well-functioning market infrastructure (Beck et al, 2016; Kiviat, 2015; Siering et al, 2017). Therefore, the implementation of smart contracts based on blockchain technology could lead to the creation and execution of contracts that occur at higher speed, lower costs and more reliability as compared to classical paper contracts (Low and Mik, 2020; Yli-Huumo et al, 2016). On a market structure level, smart contracts could circumvent intermediaries and thus provide direct access to services that are currently highly intermediated, for instance, in the world of banking and financial trading (Cong and He, 2019; Drummer et al, 2017).…”