Enjoy the easy to read Medium.com version at ComputationaLaw.org
High Level Links about Blockchain Technology - Especially for Legal Professionals
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"?
Popular media breaking it down in a way relevant to lawyers and other legal professionals:
- Who Controls the Blockchain? and YouTube video
- Lawyers Get Ready, There’s a Blockchain Coming
- The Two Topics in Law and Blockchain
- A collaboration between law.MIT.edu and the US House on developing legislative definitions of "blockchain" and "distributed ledger technologies and systems
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Nevada (SB 398): establishes various provisions relating to the use of blockchain technology. (Link to bill)
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Arizona (H B 2417): signatures; electronic transactions; blockchain technology - Signed into law April 3, 2017. (Link to bill)
Law defining and governing digital signatures, electronic contracts, automated transactions and other applications of electronic records or processes provides important overarching legal context within which to understand blockchain technology.
- Modern Blockchain-Based Digital Signature Prototype: Massachusetts Legal Hackers Mock Trial
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International Model Law on E-Commerce http://www.uncca.org/working-groups/working-group-iv
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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
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Working Group on Electronic Transferable Records: http://www.uncitral.org/uncitral/en/commission/working_groups/4Electronic_Commerce.html
The legal validity of Electronic Transferable Records was explicitly established in the US through UETA (as uniform state law) and ESIGN (federally), both of which (broadly) were implementations of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Commerce.
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Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (ESIGN): https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-106publ229/html/PLAW-106publ229.htm
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Uniform Electronic Transaction Act (UETA): http://www.uniformlaws.org/Act.aspx?title=Electronic%20Transactions%20Act
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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
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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
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Digital Evidence and Electronic Signature Law Review http://journals.sas.ac.uk/deeslr (also available in the LexisNexis and HeinOnline electronic databases)
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Massachusetts Legal Hackers: Rapid Prototyping Blockchain-Based Electronic Transferable Records
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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.