Share with:
Joe Dewey and Shawn Amuial from Holland & Knight are writing a series of articles on blockchain technology and its potential application to the legal industry at Bloomberg. Below, the article sets out practical uses of the blockchain and its potential applications in the future.
But for even the most entrepreneurial firm, a successful approach to the blockchain is not necessarily intuitive. Consider another paradigm shifting technology — the internet. There are not many “internet” practice groups still in existence.
There are, however, lawyers across many disciplines who have a deep understanding of the technology and the regulatory regime imposed upon various stakeholders involved with the internet, such as internet service providers, content providers and social media companies. The spectrum of laws that now impact these industry players is too broad to list, covering everything from anti-trust laws to FCC regulations.
As a result, there are regulatory lawyers who specialize in net neutrality regulations, corporate lawyers who handle corporate affairs for companies like Facebook and litigators who litigate intellectual property disputes involving internet based applications and technologies. Will the same thing happen with the blockchain? To some extent, most likely. There is, however, something unique about the blockchain and its relationship to the legal profession inasmuch as the blockchain has direct implications on how contractual relationships are formed and enforced. As transformative as the internet was to society, it did not fundamentally change the manner in which people contracted for goods and services.
It provided tools to make contracting easier and more efficient, but it did not require any fundamental policy changes or significantly change how lawyers practice law. Even the nature of the internet is different than the blockchain. While the internet created a revolution in terms of information sharing and global communication, the blockchain embodies a system that can facilitate multi-person interactions without the need for any third party intermediary—including the government.
In reality, the blockchain will have a far greater impact on the social contract and the organization of society in general than the internet alone has had. So where does that leave those law firms that recognize the significance of this technology and desire to best position their firms. We don’t know all the answers (or frankly any definitive ones), but we will offer a few suggestions that merit consideration by law firm management.
- Dutch Blockchain Company Tymlez Group Starts Trading on Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) - December 13, 2018
- DNAtix Releases Live Demo of its Blockchain based Genetic Infrastructure Platform - December 11, 2018
- IOHK Launches Secure Smart Contracts Technology for Cardano blockchain - December 11, 2018
- XYO Network to Launch of Blockchain Satellite on SpaceX Falcon 9 - December 11, 2018
- Algo Capital to Invest In Promising Companies Built on Algorand Platform – Announces $100 Million Blockchain Fund - December 11, 2018
- Stackr Taps into AI For Investment Solutions to Power a New Savings Solution - December 11, 2018
- Walt Disney Company Cuts Deal with Blockchain-fueled PlayGame.com to Bring Games to Southeast Asian Fans - December 11, 2018
- Huobi Releases New Derivative Market On Huobi Global - December 11, 2018
- Ledger Expands to New York City - November 26, 2018
- Genetics Prof. David Haymer Joins DNAtix Advisory Board - November 12, 2018
- Libra Announces Commitment to Support Circle Trade’s Financial Reporting Requirements - November 10, 2018
- Evident Proof, Leading Blockchain Immutable Proof Platform Accept Dash & XRP As Business Adoption Soars - November 10, 2018
- Ethereum Now On Hyperledger Fabric - October 28, 2018
- 8000+ Expected – Blockchain Expo North America Exhibition Announces Expert Speakers - October 26, 2018
- Enjin Smart Wallet Update Will Allow Users To Melt & Send ERC-1155 Tokens - October 26, 2018
- Crypto-Friendly Gallery HOFA Launches in Los Angeles With Qvantum Exhibition - October 26, 2018
- Blockchain Company WePower Announces Plans to Tokenize Estonian Power Grid - October 25, 2018
- Overstock’s Medici Ventures, Buys into Crypto Social Network, Minds - October 24, 2018
- Xfinite to release new Blockchain content platform - October 24, 2018
- Omnitude set to transform enterprise business with the move of its ECOM token to Stellar and the introduction of micropayments to users - October 24, 2018
Facebook Comments