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book: Blockchain and the Law
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Blockchain and the Law

The Rule of Code
  • and
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2018

About this book

How does Bitcoin mine money from 1s and 0s? Through blockchain, a tool for creating secure, decentralized peer-to-peer applications. The technology has been compared to the Internet in impact. But disintermediation—blockchain’s greatest benefit—cuts out oversight along with middlemen. Blockchain and the Law urges the law to catch up.

Reviews

An important new book…[It] attempts to do for blockchain what the likes of Lawrence Lessig and Tim Wu did for the Internet and cyberspace—explain how a new technology will upend the current legal and social order…A fine, deeply-researched book that can be expected to show up on law school syllabi for years to come…Blockchain and the Law is not just a theoretical guide. It’s also a moral one.
-- Jeff John Roberts Fortune

Blockchain and the Law perfectly links technical understanding with practical and legal implications. Blockchains will matter crucially; this book, beautifully and clearly written for a wide audience, powerfully demonstrates how.
-- Lawrence Lessig, Harvard Law School

Useful to an educated readership…If you…don’t ‘get’ crypto, this is the book-length treatment for you. It sees merit and potential in crypto, without buying into any particular claim just for the sake of hype.
-- Tyler Cowen Marginal Revolution

De Filippi and Wright stress that because blockchain is essentially autonomous, it is inflexible, which leaves it vulnerable, once it has been set in motion, to the sort of unforeseen consequences that laws and regulations are best able to address.
-- James Ryerson New York Times Book Review

De Filippi and Wright offer neither a jeremiad nor a gospel; unlike the breathlessness that pervades much writing on blockchain technology, they stick to sensibleness and sobriety.
-- Nathan Schneider America

Explores the implications of the technology in its broadest sense, positioning it in context of the evolution of the internet, and the development of artificial intelligence and autonomous systems which are continually touching more areas of our daily lives…A fascinating and comprehensive read that poses many questions we should debate and settle before blockchain technology becomes ubiquitous.
-- Breaker

At long last—a deeply researched, thoughtful, and measured analysis of blockchain technology and the policies that could help us harvest its opportunities and avoid its pitfalls. Blockchain and the Law should be required reading for anyone serious about understanding this major emerging element of our technological ecosystem.
-- Yochai Benkler, author of The Wealth of Networks

A well-written and comprehensive book that cuts through the blockchain hype. It not only highlights the powers and limitations of blockchain technology, but solidly grounds it in a larger social and legal context.
-- Bruce Schneier, author of Data and Goliath

If you are looking to understand the intricacies of the relationship between the law and blockchain technology, then this book should be on your list…[It] makes it clear that regulators must redefine their approach because restrictive regulations will stifle the growth of the industry.
-- Alexander Lielacher BTCManager

Topics

  • Publicly Available

    Frontmatter

    i
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  • Publicly Available

    Contents

    vii
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    Introduction

    1
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  • Part 1. The Technology
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    1. Blockchains, Bitcoin, and Decentralized Computing Platforms

    13
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    2. Characteristics of Blockchains

    33
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  • Part 2. Blockchains, Finance, and Contracts
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    3. Digital Currencies and Decentralized Payment Systems

    61
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    4. Smart Contracts as Legal Contracts

    72
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    5. Smart Securities and Derivatives

    89
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  • Part 3. Blockchains and Information Systems
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    6. Tamper-Resistant, Certified, and Authenticated Data

    107
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    7. Resilient and Tamper-Resistant Information Systems

    117
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  • Part 4. Organizations and Automation
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    8. The Future of Organizations

    131
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    9. Decentralized Autonomous Organizations

    146
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    10 Blockchain of Things

    156
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  • Part 5. Regulating Decentralized, Blockchain-Based Systems
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    11. Modes of Regulation

    173
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    12. Code as Law

    193
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    Conclusion

    205
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    Notes

    213
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    Acknowledgments

    289
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    Index

    291
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
April 9, 2018
eBook ISBN:
9780674985933
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
250
Other:
5 graphs
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https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674985933
eBook ISBN: 9780674985933
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