Blockchain and the Law

BITCOIN has been hailed as an Internet marvel and described as the preferred transaction vehicle for criminals. It has left nearly everyone without a computer science degree confused: how do you “mine” money from ones and zeros? The answer lies in a technology called the blockchain.

Blockchains are being used to create “smart contracts,” expedite payments, make financial instruments, organize the exchange of data and information, and facilitate interactions between humans and machines. As this essential book makes clear, technology cannot be harnessed productively without new rules and new approaches to legal thinking.