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Blockchains: Regulating the Unknown

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Michèle Finck

Abstract

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This Article, which takes into account developments up until summer 2017, evaluates the early days of regulatory engagement with blockchain technology. My analysis unfolds in three parts. First, I provide a cursory overview of the technology itself to highlight considerable uncertainties concerning its future. Regulators asked to engage with distributed ledgers are thus compelled to regulate the unknown. Second, I will introduce a typology of regulatory strategies adopted to date and highlight their respective advantages and shortcomings. Third, I will outline a number of guiding principles regulators should follow in respect of blockchain technology. I will make the argument that despite the technology's uncertain future, early regulatory engagement is warranted as a young technology is a malleable technology. As technology develops, law has to adapt. As a consequence, I put forward a number of regulatory techniques, including a process of polycentric co-regulation that relies on the regulatory potential of (blockchain) software and the adoption of a so-called “28th regime” at the EU level which may help navigate the uncertainties of blockchain development and regulation.

Type
Law & the new Economy
Information
German Law Journal , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , 01 July 2018 , pp. 665 - 692
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 by German Law Journal, Inc. 

References

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