Finck examines the emergence of blockchains (and other forms of distributed ledger technologies) and the implications for regulation and governance.

Global finance is in the middle of a radical transformation fueled by innovative financial technologies. The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the digitization of retail financial services in Europe. Institutional interest and digital asset markets are also growing blurring the boundaries between the token economy and traditional finance. Blockchain, AI, quantum computing and decentralised finance (DeFI) are setting the stage for a global battle of business models and philosophies. The post-Brexit EU cannot afford to ignore the promise of digital finance. But the Union is struggling to keep pace with global innovation hubs, particularly when it comes to experimenting with new digital forms of capital raising. Calibrating the EU digital finance strategy is a balancing act that requires a deep understanding of the factors driving the transformation, be they legal, cultural, political or economic, as well as their many implications. The same FinTech inventions that use AI, machine learning and big data to facilitate access to credit may also establish invisible barriers that further social, racial and religious exclusion. The way digital finance actors source, use, and record information presents countless consumer protection concerns. The EU’s strategic response has been years in the making and, finally, in September 2020 the Commission released a Digital Finance Package. This special issue collects contributions from leading scholars who scrutinize the challenges digital finance presents for the EU internal market and financial market regulation from multiple public policy perspectives. Author contributions adopt a critical yet constructive and solutions-oriented approach. They aim to provide policy-relevant research and ideas shedding light on the complexities of the digital finance promise. They also offer solid proposals for reform of EU financial services law.

How the blockchain—a system built on foundations of mutual mistrust—can become trustworthy The blockchain entered the world on January 3, 2009, introducing an innovative new trust architecture: an environment in which users trust a system—for example, a shared ledger of information—without necessarily trusting any of its components. The cryptocurrency Bitcoin is the most famous implementation of the blockchain, but hundreds of other companies have been founded and billions of dollars have been invested in similar applications since Bitcoin’s launch. Some see the blockchain as offering more opportunities for criminal behavior than benefits to society. In this book, Kevin Werbach shows how a technology resting on foundations of mutual mistrust can become trustworthy. The blockchain, built on open software and decentralized foundations that allow anyone to participate, seems like a threat to any form of regulation. In fact, Werbach argues, law and the blockchain need each other. Blockchain systems that ignore law and governance are likely to fail, or to become outlaw technologies irrelevant to the mainstream economy. That, Werbach cautions, would be a tragic waste of potential. If, however, we recognize the blockchain as a kind of legal technology that shapes behavior in new ways, it can be harnessed to create tremendous business and social value.

This volume explores from a legal perspective, how blockchain works. Perhaps more than ever before, this new technology requires us to take a multidisciplinary approach. The contributing authors, which include distinguished academics, public officials from important national authorities, and market operators, discuss and demonstrate how this technology can be a driver of innovation and yield positive effects in our societies, legal systems and economic/financial system. In particular, they present critical analyses of the potential benefits and legal risks of distributed ledger technology, while also assessing the opportunities offered by blockchain, and possible modes of regulating it. Accordingly, the discussions chiefly focus on the law and governance of blockchain, and thus on the paradigm shift that this technology can bring about.

This book examines the legal and regulatory aspects of cryptocurrency and blockchain and the emerging practical issues that these issues involve. The analysis covers a range of advanced economies across the world, in America, Europe and Asia. The book describes, explains and analyses the nature of cryptocurrencies and the blockchain systems they are constructed on in these major world economies and considers relevant law and regulation and their shortcomings. It will be of use and interest to academics, lawyers, regulators and anyone involved with cryptocurrencies and blockchain.

An exploration of the current state of global trade law in the era of Big Data and AI. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Less than a decade after the Financial Crisis, we are witnessing the fast emergence of a new financial order driven by three different, yet interconnected, dynamics: first, the rapid application of technology - such as big data, machine learning, and distributed computing - to banking, lending, and investing, in particular with the emergence of virtual currencies and digital finance; second, a disintermediation fuelled by the rise of peer-to-peer lending platforms and crowd investment which challenge the traditional banking model and may, over time, lead to a transformation of the way both retail and corporate customers bank; and, third, a tendency of de-bureaucratisation under which new platforms and technologies challenge established organisational patterns that regulate finance and manage the money supply. These changes are to a significant degree driven by the development of blockchain technology. The aim of this book is to understand the technological and business potential of the blockchain technology and to reflect on its legal challenges. The book mainly focuses on the challenges blockchain technology has so far faced in its first application in the areas of virtual money and finance, as well as those that it will inevitably face (and is partially already facing, as the SEC Investigative Report of June 2017 and an ongoing SEC securities fraud investigation show) as its domain of application expands in other fields of economic activity such as smart contracts and initial coin offerings. The book provides an unparalleled critical analysis of the disruptive potential of this technology for the economy and the legal system and contributes to current thinking on the role of law in harvesting and shaping innovation.

This book provides expert advice on the practical implementation of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and systematically analyses its various provisions. Examples, tables, a checklist etc. showcase the practical consequences of the new legislation. The handbook examines the GDPR’s scope of application, the organizational and material requirements for data protection, the rights of data subjects, the role of the Supervisory Authorities, enforcement and fines under the GDPR, and national particularities. In addition, it supplies a brief outlook on the legal consequences for seminal data processing areas, such as Cloud Computing, Big Data and the Internet of Things.Adopted in 2016, the General Data Protection Regulation will come into force in May 2018. It provides for numerous new and intensified data protection obligations, as well as a significant increase in fines (up to 20 million euros). As a result, not only companies located within the European Union will have to change their approach to data security; due to the GDPR’s broad, transnational scope of application, it will affect numerous companies worldwide.

The product of a unique collaboration between academic scholars, legal practitioners, and technology experts, this Handbook is the first of its kind to analyze the ongoing evolution of smart contracts, based upon blockchain technology, from the perspective of existing legal frameworks - namely, contract law. The book's coverage ranges across many areas of smart contracts and electronic or digital platforms to illuminate the impact of new, and often disruptive, technologies on the law. With a mix of scholarly commentary and practical application, chapter authors provide expert insights on the core issues involving the use of smart contracts, concluding that smart contracts cannot supplant contract law and the courts, but leaving open the question of whether there is a need for specialized regulations to prevent abuse. This book should be read by anyone interested in the disruptive effect of new technologies on the law generally, and contract law in particular.

AN ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO USING BLOCKCHAIN TO PROVIDE FLEXIBILITY, COST-SAVINGS, AND SECURITY TO DATA MANAGEMENT, DATA ANALYSIS, AND INFORMATION SHARING Blockchain for Distributed Systems Security contains a description of the properties that underpin the formal foundations of Blockchain technologies and explores the practical issues for deployment in cloud and Internet of Things (IoT) platforms. The authors—noted experts in the field—present security and privacy issues that must be addressed for Blockchain technologies to be adopted for civilian and military domains. The book covers a range of topics including data provenance in cloud storage, secure IoT models, auditing architecture, and empirical validation of permissioned Blockchain platforms. The book's security and privacy analysis helps with an understanding of the basics of Blockchain and it explores the quantifying impact of the new attack surfaces introduced by Blockchain technologies and platforms. In addition, the book contains relevant and current updates on the topic. This important resource: Provides an overview of Blockchain-based secure data management and storage for cloud and IoT Covers cutting-edge research findings on topics including invariant-based supply chain protection, information sharing framework, and trust worthy information federation Addresses security and privacy concerns in Blockchain in key areas, such as preventing digital currency miners from launching attacks against mining pools, empirical analysis of the attack surface of Blockchain, and more Written for researchers and experts in computer science and engineering, Blockchain for Distributed Systems Security contains the most recent information and academic research to provide an understanding of the application of Blockchain technology.