Blockchain, cryptocurrencies, smart contract and other novelties: New challenges for lawyers?

Abstract

Internet has been a revolutionary phenomenon since 30 years ago, just from being a very useful source of information and communication to becoming a completely essential resource in almost all the activities of our society.

As far as the legal world is concerned, it can be said that the internet has been and is being a very useful tool for jurists of all fields.

However, along with this «internet of information» is emerging a new model known as the «internet of things» in which people, in addition to transmitting information, can get to transmit genuine value through a network.

One of the manifestations of this internet of things is known as «blockchain» and the associated phenomenon of cryptocurrencies, which are able to assume an authentic revolution that can significantly affect, among many others, the legal world. In particular, blockchain opens the door to the possibility of creating true smart contracts, previously almost science fiction, capable of automatically executing their clauses once the fulfilment of their terms has been verified, without the intervention of the parties.

Due to the extension of the subject, it constitutes the humble purpose of the following lines to bring the reader closer to this new reality and to some of its most relevant implications for jurists: we will try to briefly explain what blockchain is and how it works; we will enter the controversial world of cryptocurrencies to analyze their nature, operations that are being carried out with them and the risks that their anonymity poses, with special emphasis on money laundering regulations; we will refer to the smart contract and the more or less disruptive incidence it may have in some legal professions; finally we will finish making reference to the multiple applications that blockchain can have in the nearest future.