Although the term “digital rights” and their kinds are now stipulated in the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and other federal laws, the concept of a smart contract and its legal issues arising with its use are not reflected in the current legislation. In our view, it is a drawback since digital rights are transferred from the one to another person in an information system with the use of a smart contract. Smart contract is deemed to be a contract which is concluded and performed in a special information system being decentralized and distributed (like blockchain) and enabling making transactions of digital rights. The peculiarities of a smart contract enhance stability of civil turnover and promote due performance of obligations. It is argued to be possible to transit digital rights in virtue of law on such lawful grounds as a court decision, hereditary succession in case of presenting a certificate of inheritance, where an operator of an information system makes an appropriate record in accordance with the rules of such information system. The lack of legal regulation of a smart contract restrains the broader use of digital rights as well as implementation of accrual of digital rights on the basis of decisions of law enforcement bodies.
The crypto industry has exploded in recent years, and authorities in different countries have been reacting in very different ways. Some have banned cryptocurrencies, while others are embracing them to varying degrees. Some are working hard to align their anti-money laundering regulations with FATF standards, while others are turning a blind eye. A few countries have confiscated huge quantities of crypto assets linked to crime and money laundering. Others are at square one in terms of enforcement, risking becoming a hub for crypto crime and money laundering and posing a serious vulnerability in the world’s financial system.
 This Working Paper draws on a detailed analysis of how selected countries are addressing legal, regulatory and enforcement issues around cryptocurrencies and other virtual assets. The analysis is focused on Asia, but set in the context of global trends in crypto law, regulation and enforcement. It explores critical questions that will shape policies around virtual assets at the corporate, national and international levels:
 
 What is working in terms of crypto regulation and enforcement?
 What are the implications of different policy choices on crypto assets – for the industry, for the countries themselves and for global financial integrity as a whole?
 What would the crypto wave possibly bring next?
 
 The Paper also highlights broader developments needed to bring light and clarity to laws, policies and practices around the crypto industry, such as collaboration between both market players and governments.
 Jurisdictions touched upon in this Working Paper alphabetically include Bhutan, Central African Republic, El Salvador, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, the Philippines, the People’s Republic of China, Thailand, Ukraine and Vietnam.
 A list of key terms and abbreviations have been prepared in the Annex to this Working Paper for the readers’ easy reference.
 About this Working Paper
 This Working Paper is a collaboration between Dorothy Siron, Co-Managing Partner, Zhong Lun Law Firm LLP and Federico Paesano, Senior Financial Investigation Specialist, Basel Institute on Governance.
 Dorothy Siron provided the bulk of the analysis and discussion, while Federico Paesano provided a selection of case studies and was co-author of the seven recommendations contained in section 4. The collaboration was facilitated by the International Academy of Financial Crime Litigators, an independent, non-partisan global centre that shapes and advances financial crime litigation practices for the future.
SpCon: Finding Smart Contract Permission Bugs with Role Mining This page can be best viewed at: https://github.com/Franklinliu/SpCon-Artifact. This artifact has been archived at the following permanent location: [](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6534218) We wish to apply for the availability, functionality, and reusability badges. Contents This readme first demonstrates how to quickly use <em>SpCon</em> to detect smart contract permission bugs with an example. Then, we provide details on the result reproduction procedures for the two experiments from the paper. Finally, we give an example to show how to reuse <em>SpCon</em> and its API documentation for potential reusability and integration in the future.
This paper presents a review of the current status and development trends of the non-fungible tokens’ technology (NFT), which are digital rights to unique objects recorded in the blockchain. The object of the study is the non-interchangeable token technology. The subject of the study is the fields of practical application of NFT. The method is an analytical review of scientific publications. The current state and socio-cultural sources of the NFT market related to works of art and media objects are analysed. The technological and legal problems preventing the wide spread of NFT in the business environment are identified. The prospects for the use of non-fungible tokens in the field of protection and commercialization of patent law objects are considered.
Dijital tarihin akışına yön veren blok zinciri teknolojisi sanat tasarım ve ekonomi gibi birçok alanda yankı uyandırmıştır. Kripto ekonomi ağında geliştirilen NFT (Non-Fungible Tokens) varlık birimi ile tasarımcılar ve sanatçılar etki alanlarını genişletmişlerdir. Dijital eserlerin değer kazanması ve sahiplik haklarının lisanslanabilmesi, bilgi çağında sanat ve tasarımın dijital baskınlığının bir göstergesi olmuştur. Bu gelişmeler dijital sanata dair yeni tartışmaları gündeme getirmiştir. Eserin dijital varlığı ile fiziksel varlığı arasındaki kıyas bazı sanat eserlerinin sadece dijitalde var olabilmeleri adına fiziksel varlıklarının yakılarak yok edilmesi gibi durumlarla sonuçlanmıştır.Teknolojinin doğru amaçlarla kullanılabilmesi için öncelikle altyapısının doğru anlaşılması gerektiği göz önünde bulundurularak, NFT teknolojisinin anlaşılabilmesi adına araştırmada blok zinciri teknolojisine ayrıntılı bir şekilde yer verilmiştir. Teknolojideki bu kritik gelişmelerin altyapısının anlaşılması kripto sanat alanında atılacak adımların daha nitelikli olması ve yeni kripto koşullara uyum sağlanabilmesi açısından önemlidir. Araştırma, dijital çağın sunduğu olanakların doğru kullanımı ve bu doğrultuda yaşanan gelişmelerin odağında biçimlendirilmiştir. Bu kapsamda kripto sanat eserlerinin anlamsal değeri Beeple’ın Everydays: The First 5000 days isimli eseri üzerinden sanat eleştirmenleri ve sanatçıların yorumları ışığında değerlendirilmiştir. Araştırmada, lisanslanarak eşsiz birer dijital varlığa dönüştürülen sanat eserleri fiziksel varlıkları üzerinden irdelenmiş, varlıkların dijital ve fiziksel varoluşları adına ortaya koyulan eserler ve projeler değerlendirilmiş, sonuç kısmında doküman ve metin analizi yapılmıştır. Bu şekilde bir dijital varlığın kendini gerçeklemesi için fiziksel varlığından kurtulunması düşüncesi ve vandallık arasındaki fark ortaya koyulmuştur.
The article examines the institutions of civil procedural law, in which, according to the author, it is possible and necessary to use distributed ledger technology (blockchain technology). The author argues that the technology is applicable not only for private legal purposes, but can signifi -cantly change a number of familiar rules of legal proceedings. In particular, the technology of distributed registers can change the procedural guarantees of the independence of state judges, more often involve active citizens in the administration of justice, change the system for reviewing court decisions, contribute to the unification of judicial practice, and reduce the judicial burden on judges. The author also sees the possible benefits of the technology for cases, the making of decisions on which in the future can be implemented using artificial intelligence and machine data analysis. Thus, subject to the correct use of blockchain technology, the state will be able to ensure the modification of those guarantees of justice that are currently considered poorly implemented or unreliable, including due to the development of digital technologies.
Blockchain is the technology behind infamous Bitcoin and provides a structure for dispute resolution with the help of smart contracts. The technology aims to establish an anonymous and decentralized mechanism without any state oversight or intermediary for transactions. Blockchain works on a decentralized network creating an immutable record of transactions. A smart contract is a self-executing software program that automatically performs a function. Once the conditions are met, the contract enforces itself without any additional step. The blockchain dispute resolution (BDR) platforms offer services for disputes arising out of blockchain and smart contract transactions or for traditional disputes that are not related to blockchain transactions. Each of the platforms provides untraditional mechanisms for adjudication that are also different from each other, creating an unorganized and unregulated environment. The platforms do not comply with the accustomed principles of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and online dispute resolution (ODR) mechanisms raising the question of validity and legitimacy of the platforms and the need for regulation. The article aims to act as a brief introduction to some of these platforms and identifies major issues with BDR when compared to the established dispute resolution procedures. It briefly explains the blockchain and smart contracts with some examples on their alternative applications and then introduces BDR platforms. The article discusses concerns about BDR in light of ADR and ODR principles. It points out main issues following up the comparison of different mechanisms and tries to provide a perspective to find answers with discussion of possible solutions. Finally, the article suggests that the best way forward is to utilize BDR for supplementing ODR and ADR. If regulation is found absolutely necessary, then soft law instruments should be the first step in this respect.
The article examines the economic and legal nature of cryptocurrency as an object of civil rights. The article analyzes the current problems of the civil law mechanism for fulfilling obligations in the sphere of digital rights turnover. The system of characteristic features of the cryptocurrency is revealed. To clarify and integrate doctrinal, legislative and law enforcement approaches, the author proposes a definition of cryptocurrency based on its qualifying features. The author defines cryptocurrency as a transferable complex thing within a given specific digital system, which is characterized by both material signs of money, currency values and information, and legally significant qualities of the property, digital and intellectual rights, and intangible benefits (business reputation). Currently, it is necessary to sыolve the problem with the lack of theoretical, legislative, and law enforcement approach to the concept of cryptocurrency and the systematization of its qualifying features. The legal definition of cryptocurrency will serve as a methodological basis for the effective legal regulation of relations both in the specialized market of digital financial instruments and relations in the rapidly developing sphere of digital rights, which is necessary for economic growth and serves as an institutional basis for the digital economy and the state.
The conclusion of smart contracts is placed on the blockchain platform due to the special features of this platform, including the two features of transparency and decriminalization. After being completed on the blockchain network, these contracts' transparency feature enables the public to observe and offer them. In this case, all the people who have access to this platform have the possibility of knowing what was transferred by whom to whom, and this not only prevents the occurrence of many related lawsuits but also many crimes related to property.
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) built in the blockchain are quietly revolutionizing ideas around digital assets despite their questionable status under current law. Furthermore, the smart contracts that control many NFTs are disrupting the way deals are done. At the same time, disputes regarding NFTs and smart contracts are inevitable, and parties will need means for dealing with these highly technical issues. This chapter tackles this challenge and proposes that parties turn to online dispute resolution (“ODR”) to efficiently and fairly resolve NFT and smart contract disputes. Furthermore, the chapter acknowledges the benefits and challenges of current means for addressing blockchain issues and proposes ideas for how designers could address those challenges and incorporate ODR to provide efficient and fair resolutions.
The software industry's history is also its future. Its history has been defined by both abundance and scarcity, and its future will be, too. In the 1970s and 80s, perceived software scarcity led U.S. legislators to formally grant intellectual property protections to software creators. Later, a different kind of scarcity-a lack of access to source code-led the founders of the free and open source software movement to flip intellectual property protections on their head in an effort to better promote abundance. That movement proved wildly successful, with today's software industry based on vast amounts of freely available open source software resources that both organizations and individuals collaboratively build. Abundance and scarcity will also define software's future, but in different ways. The abundance that the open source software movement spawned is in the midst of a significant commercial phase. That sometimes means that commercial competitors bring to the table a scarcity mindset that conflicts with the norms that made that movement so successful. Intellectual property concerns at times derail what may otherwise be even greater software abundance. And because so much software is moving into the Cloud, trade secrecy may become the software industry's most important form of intellectual property to the extent the industry abandons open models of innovation. The software industry's growing dependence on artificial intelligence (AI) is likely to contribute to these trends. The software industry is increasingly becoming synonymous with the AI industry, as more and more software companies either rely on AI in running their services or provide AI products to the public. As with all software, these AI technologies are increasingly provided from the Cloud, where trade secrecy is not only possible, but often preferable. But trade secrecy may be even more likely in the AI context because much of the magic in implementing AI systems lies in the know-how to piece them together from available open source software resources, decades-old AI techniques, and data. Hence, to the extent that software and AI technologists spurn open innovation in favor of a scarcity mindset, trade secrecy is likely to become its dominant form of legal protection. The advent of web3 technologies may eventually change some of these trends. But for now, increasing secrecy seems the most likely outcome. I conclude by arguing that this shift to secrecy is likely preferable to other forms of intellectual property.
The paper aims at determining the utility of NFTs within the current EU framework of copyright, specifically from the authors' perspective. The issues of technical feasibility and scale of adoption remain beyond the scope of the paper; the focus lies rather on the legal aspects, particularly the case law of the CJEU. For authors, the NFT landscape is currently filled with potential economic benefits, as well as perils. With this in mind, the paper anticipates future legislative and judicial interventions in the new area. The paper's answer to whether NFTs could be relevant for copyright law is a resounding "yes", potentially allowing the effortless dissemination of content to finally work in the authors' favor, instead of incurring enforcement costs. Interestingly enough, the answer is justified with the example of tokenized internet memes.
Abstract The viability of exponentially growing non-fungible token (NFT) market is evaluated by identifying potential value-generating mechanisms that can be rationalized. After identifying the value-generating mechanisms underlying the positive values of NFTs, this study establishes a pricing model for NFTs that follows a continuous-time financial framework. As NFTs are claimed to securitize “ownership rights short of use”, and as such they may potentially serve as a substitute for the need to rely replace the reliance on the legal protection provided by intellectual property rights (IPRs). Considering this issue, this study evaluates the likelihood that NFTs will replace existing mechanisms that protect producers’ rightful claim to use their assets or the need to apply the legal code that governs IPRs. The financial condition for this potential shift is derived for a category of assets whose use or consumption does not reduce supply as the notion of scarcity does not apply.
Purpose-The smart contract and blockchain concepts are being discussed in various disciplines as well as law with a rapid increase. However, in legal sense, the application of such concepts are far more advanced than the legal regulations on those topics not to mention the academic studies. Although there are a few distinguished monographies and a number of papers focusing the legal aspect, the applicability especially in certain circumstance -in which contractual law studies or defines as fundamental elements -are still vague. Therefore, this paper distinguishes itself by focusing on the purpose of studying some of the possible legal effects and results of smart contracts in commercial life as well as in finance.
The research is carried out on some legal issues of smart contracts and their place in Russian and other countries’ contract law. By means of contract law such issues are analysed: 1) conclusion and performance of smart contracts’ obligations; 2) practical issues arising due to smart contracts’ use; 3) contract law provisions that might be applied to smart contracts; 4) issues that are not covered by the legislation but need to be addressed. A smart contract is considered to be a contract with the specific type of performance of obligations (automated performance). Smart contract is a contract concluded with an exchange of data (type of a written form). Smart contracts are performed with the help of automated performance and previously expressed consent of parties. It is proved that smart contracts could be modified and terminated giving a mechanism for that as well as provides for measures of defence and responsibility that could be applied for obligations out of smart contracts. As the result, provisions of smart contracts that reflect smart contracts’ place and peculiarities in contract law are formulated
The deployment of smart contracts within the European zone could fluidify economic transactions. It also risks fragmenting the Digital Single Market (“DSM”). This conundrum calls for a constructive response to preserve both the benefits brought by smart contracts and a strong DSM.
Against this background, this report adopts a “law + technology” approach. It suggests combining law and technology to develop solutions that encourage the evolution of smart contracts (rather than hindering it) in a direction that preserves and reinforces the DSM.
This article has been prepared for the research purpose of identifying, disclosing, and justifying certain trends in the development of civil law and procedures in the context of the spread of smart contract practices and the expansion of their spheres of application. At the moment, there is no uniform approach to choosing an optimal form for the legal regulation of smart contracts within the system of contract law in modern legal systems or international law; meanwhile, globalization and the digitalization of the economy imply the growth of cross-border transactions. The emergence of smart contracts is due to the development of e-commerce, in which the parties’ interactions are carried out electronically instead of in physical exchanges or direct physical contact. Smart contracts gaining popularity in circulation are based on two interrelated elements: firstly, they eliminate a person’s direct participation in some or all cases of executing the agreement using an automated code designed for execution without reference to the intentions of the contracting parties after publication; secondly, they make use of decentralized blockchain technology, and also provide automatic code execution without any party’s potential intervention, so as to eliminate or reduce the self-control and third-party control of the commitment. This study examines the content, conclusion, validity, protection of rights and legitimate interests of the parties, interpretation, and legal nature of smart contracts. The research materials used foreign experience in resolving disputes from smart contracts on digital platforms (Kleros, JUR, Aragon Network Justice, OpenCourt, OpenBazaar), as well as domestic and foreign literature on smart contracts. This research has been prepared based on general (deduction, dialectical analysis, intersectoral relations of objects) and specialized (comparative-legal, economic-legal) methods of scientific experimentation. The authors conclude that there are no grounds for considering a smart contract as a new classification element of the system of contractual regulation (type or kind of contract). In addition, the analysis shows that the resolution of smart contract disputes through digital platforms remains radically uncertain, and currently is not creating obvious advantages in comparison with traditional judicial proceedings.
The present paper analyses the aspects of investigations of crime involving cryptocurrencies as a payment instrument. Ever since their emergence, cryptocurrencies have come to be actively used by criminals in all types of illegal activities, such as drug trafficking, money laundering, illegal arms trade, payments for criminal services and many other crimes. The paper aims to establish the methods of crime investigation to track data on cryptocurrency transactions and identify and show up the participants of illegal operations. The author shows that the development of computer and digital information technologies and the Internet has brought about the ever-increasing prevalence of cryptocurrencies in all social domains, including the shadow sector, i. e., the criminal world. Figures are provided illustrating the overall circulation of cryptocurrencies in the world and its illegal segment. Explaining the attractiveness of cryptocurrencies for criminal structures, the author points at its anonymity and inadequate regulation of various aspects in laws. An analysis is provided of the practice of countries where cryptocurrency circulation is not only permitted but regulated to a maximum possible extent. The impact of such regulation for the state of the shadow cryptocurrency market is shown. The research further concerns the potential for bringing international expertise to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Potential methods of crime investigation concerning shadow cryptocurrency transactions are outlined, helping to identify and show up the participants involved. Forecasts are provided as to the development of modern forensics and the emergence of new forensic methods helping to uncover cryptocurrency-related crime; proposals are drawn for amending criminal and criminal procedure laws to facilitate investigations in the new context.
Hugo Leonardo Barboza, Ariê Scherreier Ferneda, Liz Beatriz Sass
O presente artigo tem como objetivo analisar a garantia de autenticidade por meio de Non-Fungible Tokens e a (in)validade para a proteção de obras intelectuais, com especial enfoque às obras artísticas. A pesquisa foi desenvolvida por meio do método hipotético-dedutivo, lastreado na revisão bibliográfica, e se justifica em razão do crescente número de comunidades de artistas que aderem à exposição e venda de suas criações em galerias digitais e transacionam em um Blockchain. Em um primeiro momento, estudou-se a proteção da propriedade intelectual, destacando-se convenções internacionais sobre a temática, bem como as disposições da legislação brasileira; e, em segundo momento, foi estudado o conceito de artes digitais, para fins de avaliar, posteriormente, a (in)validade do registro das obras por meio de NFT’s. Como resultado da pesquisa, conclui-se que o NFT se apresenta como uma possível solução para garantia de autoria e autenticidade das produções no espaço cibernético, embora ainda restem dúvidas sobre a segurança que esta tecnologia efetivamente possa atestar.
Customs surveillance of intellectual property is an efficient way to quickly and effectively provide legal protection to the right-holder, as it allows to nip the infringements in the bud. Technology has drastically changed the means and mechanisms of customs enforcement, as it increases the possibilities of identifying and detaining goods infringing IPRs, and makes it more feasible to assess in advance where control is required. However, assessing in advance and acting when appropriate does not always match well with fundamental intellectual property principles (territoriality), global trade norms (freedom of transit), global intellectual property rules, and due process requirements. This chapter explores some of the challenges and opportunities brought by AI, big data and distributed ledger technologies to customs enforcement of IPRs. It looks at AI’s transformative influence on IP enforcement and the digitization and use of big data in customs control.