DISTRIBUTED LEDGER TECHNOLOGY CHALLENGINGANTI-TRUST AND COMPETITION LAW

Abstract

Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) enables a way to secure decentralized datasets without involvement of third parties or intermediates secure, auditable and incorruptible. The specific way of storing data on worldwide peer-to-peer networks makes any attempt to regulate such applications very difficult as they are not residing in a specific area of influence of any given regulation or jurisdiction. DLT might prove to be agnostic to any jurisdictional rules based on traditional legislative understanding. Also in future it might be possible that artificial intelligence could be put into position to trigger decisions automatically based on such applications which will become a major challenge for competition and anti-trust regulators. Based on the Bitcoin technology we will see that there are fair possibilities to regulate the ledgers indirectly through existing legal and regulatory systems. The ones existing outside of regulatory structures could be controlled indirectly through regulating the gatekeepers that connect the DLT with the existing regulated structures. Selfregulation might also play a part to make these technologies widely acceptable.