Blockchain Papers

Laura Maes

No abstract is available for this record.

Stefano A. Cerrato

italianoLo smart contract permette di realizzare attraverso la blockchain un processo negoziale capace di eseguirsi in modo autonomo senza intervento umano al verificarsi di dati presupposti. Il contributo si interroga sulla possibilita di qualificare come contratto lo smart contract e sulla disciplina ad esso applicabile. EnglishA smart contract on blockchain creates a self-executing process depending on specific conditions. The essay wonders if a smart contract could be defined as “contract” and what could be the related rules.

Anusch Alexander Tavakoli

No abstract is available for this record.

David A. Paulus

No abstract is available for this record.

Vincenzo Zeno-Zencovich

No abstract is available for this record.

Authors unavailable

No abstract is available for this record.

Dennis Hillemann

No abstract is available for this record.

Florian Möslein

No abstract is available for this record.

Oscar Borgogno

It provides an early overview of the cases where the use of smart contracts may prove significantly beneficial in B2C transactions. It focuses on the capacity of smart contracts to mitigate some of the well-known problems affecting B2C and B2B relationships. The adoption of regulatory sandboxes in the rail and air sectors will be described as a first testing ground to assess the potential of smart contracts.

Larry A. DiMatteo, Michel Cannarsa, Cristina Poncibò

Smart contracts have been a topic of interest to lawyers for some time now. The question regularly arises as to whether a smart contract can also constitute a valid contract on its own. This article examines this question, focusing on the basic principles of Swiss contract law.

Israel Cedillo Lazcano

Cryptocurrencies have been around since 2009 when the programmer Satoshi Nakamoto launched the technology behind Bitcoin. There are now several different cryptocurrencies and they are likely to be ...

Taner Emre YARDIMCI

Bitcoin denkler arası/eşitler arası ağa dayalı olan kripto bir birimidir. Bitcoinin en temel özelliği herhangi bir otorite tarafından arz ve garanti edilmemesidir. Bitcoin işlemleri, bunları dijital bir deftere kaydeden blok zinciri ile bütün kullanıcılar için umumi hâle gelir. Bitcoin ağının merkezî olmayan yapısı, cebri icra süreci bakımından bazı sorunları da beraberinde getirmektedir. Bir taraf akdi bir ilişkiye istinaden belirli bir tutar bitcoini ifa etmeyi taahhüt ederse, diğer taraf kararlaştırılan bitcoini almak için cebri icra takibi başlatabilmelidir. Diğer taraftan, bir icra dairesi, takip alacaklısının talebi üzerine, bir bitcoin kullanıcısının para borcundan ötürü bitcoinini haczedebilmelidir. Haciz işleminde bitcoinin merkezî olmayan yapısı dikkate alınmalıdır.

Andrew Murray

This chapter examines online payment methods, including the use of tokens, in electronic commerce. It first provides an overview of token payments before looking at alternative electronic payment systems including debt substitution, payment by credit cards, and fund transfer. The chapter reviews the failure of the European Commission’s Electronic Money Directive 2000 and examines whether the current law, found in the 2009 Electronic Money Directive, is likely to provide a better legal environment for electronic money to flourish. It spends considerable time looking at the development of cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin and how blockchain is used to establish trust in cryptocurrency transactions, before concluding with an analysis of the law in relation to cryptocurrency.

Rémy Zgraggen

It this paper it has been analyzed whether and under what conditions an insurance company can accept insurance premiums and claims payments in Bitcoins or other crypto currency based on a smart insurance contract. On the one hand the question has been explored with regard to private law, especially insurance contract law; on the other with regard to public law, in particular financial supervisory law. The research for the present paper has been conducted primarily by taking into consideration the relevant legal frameworks in the European Union, Switzerland, UK and Liechtenstein, while referring at the same time to general legal principles of public and private law, which have their validity in most other jurisdictions of common or civil law, such as for example in the US, Hong Kong, Singapore or Japan.

de Graaf

Verhaalsbeslag op bitcoins Verhaalsbeslag op bitcoins is mogelijk door (1) de drager waarop de privésleutel staat waarmee over bitcoins kan worden beschikt (de paper of hardware wallet ) als waardepapier te kwalificeren, (2) op die wallet conservatoir verhaalsbeslag te leggen en als de toegang tot die wallet beveiligd is met een code, de schuldenaar te dwingen die code prijs te geven, (3) de bitcoins naar een andere, door een bank of DNB nieuw geopende bitcoinrekening over te maken, en (4) de paper of hardware wallet van die nieuwe bitcoinrekening te zijner tijd executoriaal te verkopen.

Thomas Hoffmann, Volker Skwarek

No abstract is available for this record.

Gerald Spindler

Digitalization revolutionizes all legal areas, including corporate law. The article deals with different impacts of digitalization on communication schemes in corporations, such as virtual general assemblies or communication patterns in board of directors, also encompassing communication with third parties, namely investors. The legal framework for these communication patterns refer not only to corporate but also to media regulations, data protections, as well as capital market law. Digitalization also has an impact on liability of directors: As Big Data and new algorithms improve the information base for decision making of directors they are at the same time obliged to make use of it. On the other hand, IT-security has become one of the main tasks for directors as digitalization of all work flows in enterprises requires necessary IT-security standards in order to avoid existential risks in case of attacks. Furthermore, Blockchain as a new technology enables the secure identification of all kind of transactions, including automatized contracts (so-called smart contracts) which could enhance procedures in corporations. New problems arise concerning the use of Blockchain as an investment form such as DAO Ethereum. Finally, the phenomenon of close cooperation between different partners by using digital work flows and semi-intelligent agents (so-called industry 4.0) is discussed.

Olivier Hari

Cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, ether or many others, relying on a distributed blockchain system (based on Distributed Ledger Technology, DLT), constitute an important and ever-growing market. The circulation of bitcoin alone currently has an estimated value of USD 115 billion. By way of comparison, the cash in circulation in Switzerland – not to be confused with the monetary aggregates M1, M2 and M3 which are much larger – totals CHF 84.5 billion. EY Switzerland announced that from January 2017 its clients could pay for their audit and advisory services in bitcoin; the town of Zug made a similar announcement recently. Numerous legal questions are raised in relation to the protection of individuals who have acquired cryptocurrency wallets or store them online. The aim of this chapter is to determine the existing protection for cryptocurrency holders (in particular for bitcoin, but in principle the reasoning can be transposed to any type of cryptocurrency based on identical technology) if a key storage supplier goes bankrupt. First, the analysis will focus on the issue of whether a positive cryptocurrency balance constitutes a thing and whether the activity of keeping cryptocurrency wallets is subject to authorisation by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA); the answer to this question will determine the scope of protection for the claimant in insolvency law.

Lukáš Müller, R. Seiler

Smart Contracts lassen sich als automatisierbare, durchsetzbare digitale Abbildungen von Obligationen umschreiben, welche mittels Blockchain-Technologie einen automatischen Erfullungsprozess vorsehen. In diesem Beitrag werden potenzielle Anwendungsbereiche von Smart Contracts besprochen, zu denen insbesondere standardisierbare, langerfristige Geschaftsbeziehungen oder die Abwicklung von Kaufvertragen gehoren. Die Technologie, auf der Smart Contracts basieren, birgt dabei gewisse rechtliche Herausforderungen. Smart Contracts dienen als Erganzung zur Standardisierung bestehender Vertragsverhaltnisse und rufen daher nur wenige Probleme im Vertragsrecht hervor. Wichtig ist es, das System der Leistungsstorungen bereits bei der Gestaltung der Smart Contracts zu berucksichtigen. Falls die rechtlichen Vorgaben adaquat berucksichtigt werden, konnen operative Risiken, insbesondere Leistungsstorungen, minimiert werden. -- Les smart contracts (contrats intelligents) peuvent etre decrits comme des representations numeriques automatisables et executoires d’obligations prevoyant un processus d’execution automatique au moyen d’une technologie de type blockchain. Cet article traite des champs d’application potentiels des smart contracts, parmi lesquels on compte notamment les relations d’affaire standardisables et a long terme ou encore l’execution de contrats de vente. La technologie sur laquelle les smart contracts sont bases presente certains defis juridiques. Les smart contracts servent de complement a la standardisation de relations contractuelles preexistantes et ne soulevent donc que peu de problemes dans le droit des contrats. Il est important de prendre en compte le systeme des perturbations de performance lors de la conception des smart contracts. Pourvu que les prescriptions legales soient adequatement respectees, les risques operationnels, notamment les perturbations de performance, peuvent etre minimises.

Przemysław Rodwald, Witold Sobolewski, Maja Rodwald

The aim of this article is to show how one can deanonymize users of cryptocurrencies. To this end the most popular of the cryptocurrencies, i.e. bitcoin is used as an example. At the beginning, the basic concepts about cryptocurrencies are presented. Afterwards, our approach to systematize the types of transactions existing in the blockchain is proposed. This part is enriched with the graphs showing their quantitative occurrence in the blockchain. The main part of this article presents the heuristics use to deanonymize users. A few practical pieces of advice for implementation of the presented heuristics in the real deanonymizing system are included. Then the real case studies are introduced. They are supported with comments based on the experience from court trials carried out by the authors. The final part contains legal regulations and existing tools supporting the deanonymizing process. Keywords: deanonymization, cryptocurrency, bitcoin.

Andrew Dickinson

Abstract This chapter examines the range of challenges raised by virtual cryptocurrencies for the conflict of laws in England and other jurisdictions in the European Union, along with possible ways of addressing those challenges. It first provides an overview of virtual currencies and cryptocurrencies before discussing the regulatory challenges presented by cryptocurrencies as a form of ‘disruptive technology’ for the conflict of laws. It then considers the law applicable to the relationships between participants within a cryptocurrency system, with reference to Bitcoin and Ripple, and the question of whether virtual cryptocurrencies are capable of constituting ‘money'’ with equivalence to national (fiat) currencies. The chapter concludes with an analysis of how virtual cryptocurrencies should be characterised as property in the conflict of laws, focusing on the law applicable to assignments of claims under/outside the Rome I Regulation.

Mustapha Mekki

International audience

Asress Adimi Gikay

A decade after the financial market started experimenting with blockchain, the prevailing view of EU regulators has been that blockchain based transactions do not fit into the current regulatory regime. This was illustrated by the European Banking Authority’s warning to the consumers issued in 2013 of the absence of specific legal regime designed to protect the consumers dealing with exchange platforms. A similar position was adopted by the European Securities and Market Authority in its 2017 investor alert indicating that ICO operating in unregulated spaces pose several risks the consumers should be aware of.By Examining developments until December 2018, this article argues that the extent of regulatory uncertainty is overstated and recommends a functional approach to regulation. It posits that although blockchain and cryptocurrencies are new technologies, the legal transactions they enable are not entirely novel and could largely be regulated under the existing legal rules without the need for sweeping reform.

André Janssen

No abstract is available for this record.