Interesting
- by Michel
- 4 posts
-
Watch This Space: The Smart Contracts Are Coming
You might remember me writing about the Cardozo Law School’s Blockchain Project and its critical response to the “SAFT”—a framework drawn up by Cooley and Protocol Labs for navigating securities laws when conducting an initial coin offering (more on ICOs below).
While here in New York, I took the opportunity to catch up with the director of the project, Aaron Wright, and learn a little more about his work. In a special edition of my Unprecedented podcast, Wright tells me Cardozo has helped with the legal aspects some of blockchain’s major players, like Ethereum, and is also offering courses to students beyond your typical law school offerings, such as teaching them how to code smart contracts.
While acknowledging there’s a lot of hype around blockchain, crypto and related tech right now, he says: “Like all hype, there’s a grain of truth in it.” “I think what’s interesting about blockchain technology and also how it interacts with the legal profession is—really for the first time in quite a while—we have the opportunity to reflect and think about how we engage in commerce,” he adds.
“ A lot like how Bitcoin and Ethereum and these other projects have forced us to reexamine how value gets transferred, [blockchain technology] is also going to force lawyers to think about how they actually construct their commercial relationships, for their clients and for society at large.” Listen to the full interview here, or through Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or Libsyn.
Wright also has a new book coming out this spring co-authored by Primavera De Filippi of Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center called “Blockchain and the Law:
The Rule of Code.” >> Think Ahead:
This is all about a shift away from the ambiguity of natural language and toward a faith in the absoluteness of computer code. It’s also about the future of the internet; if you haven’t already, go read Steven Johnson’s recent article in The New York Times Magazine.
On the Radar: 3 Things to Know
1. Sunday was Data Privacy Day. Facebook celebrated by giving users more of a glimpse at how their data is used—and an additional degree of control.
● Facebook is launching a new “education campaign” that will push videos into users’ news feeds with information about how they can manage their privacy. It also published seven “privacy principles” about how it uses the data it gathers.
● “We recognize that people use Facebook to connect, but not everyone wants to share everything with everyone–including with us,” Facebook Chief Privacy Office Erin Egan wrote. “It’s important that you have choices when it comes to how your data is used.” >> Takeaway:
“In truth it’s just cribbing chunks of the GDPR and claiming the regulation’s principles as its own.
So full marks for spin there,” writes TechCrunch’s Natasha Lomas. 2. Japan was one of the first governments to embrace cryptocurrency. Now it’s turning a sharp eye to crypto exchanges.
● After the theft of $530 million in “NEM” coins” from the Coincheck exchange in Tokyo, local authorities said Monday they would investigate all cryptocurrency exchanges in the country for security gaps, Reuters reports.
● Japan last year “became the first country to regulate exchanges at the national level—a move that won praise for boosting innovation and protecting consumers, contrasting sharply with crackdowns in South Korea and China,” it adds. >> Takeaway:
Amid a lot of hype around the strength of blockchain, this is another reminder that the technology isn’t secure by default. 3. The Securities and Exchange Commission is not letting up any time soon on ICOs.
● First PlexCoin, then Munchee, now AriseBank. The SEC on Tuesday announced it had obtained a court order halting an allegedly fraudulent ICO targeting retail investors to fund what it claimed to be the world’s first ”decentralized bank.”
● The action, filed in federal court in Dallas, alleges that the individual behind AriseBank falsely stated that it purchased an FDIC-insured bank, enabling customers the ability to obtain VISA cards to spend any of the many hundreds of cryptocurrencies. >> Think Ahead:
The SEC seems to now be focusing mainly on stopping outright fraud, but it’s also eyeing professionals—including lawyers serving as “gatekeepers” in facilitating otherwise legitimate ICOs that may not comply with security laws.
“My caution in using this term is that it brings to mind Skynet.” — Catherine Krow of Directory Legal talking at Legalweek’s workshop on “The Foundation of AI and Machine Learning” about her aversion to saying “artificial intelligence.” Check out my Twitter thread from the panel to get some of the highlights.
In Futuro: Robolawyer Ethics
Here at the LegalTech panel on the “Rise of the Robolawyer,” I asked Martin Tully, who just formed the tech-focused Actuate Law, about whether lawyers actually have an ethical duty to use new analytical tools and other technology for their clients.
His answer: Yes. (Longer answer: as long as it makes sense for the case.) He noted that states like Florida now require lawyers to take regular technology training to help ensure they’re up-to-speed. Tully, who’s based in Chicago, gave this example:
Imagine preparing a brief for the Seventh Circuit for a client and not checking it using Lexis or Westlaw (or another legal research service). “I would be fired,” he said. It’s not a far stretch, Tully added, to apply that same kind of thinking to the newer technology-assisted review and machine learning tools.
HB Gordon, who manages e-discovery at Teva Pharmaceuticals, put some of the onus on attorneys to “push back on colleges and education institutions that are preparing the lawyers of the future to make sure the lawyers are educated right from the get-go.”
Dose of Dystopia
Elie Mystal at Above the Law had about the same reaction I did to the roll-out of a software tool that purports to memorialize consent for sex: What the …?! But more to the point, Mystal talks about how this could actually be “weaponized” against women who become victims of sexual assault.
Side note: the company that is launching “LegalFling”—LegalThings—is the same one that’s building out a tool to more efficiently process low-level criminal offenders. “My concern is that explicit consent, memorialized by blockchain, creates a period of time when consent cannot functionally be revoked. Women have a hard enough time ‘proving’ date rape as it is.
What police officer (much less stupid freaking JURY) is going to hold a man responsible if he’s holding a smart contract in his hand?” He sums up: “Sex contracts are fraught with danger, especially sex contracts that purport to be a perfect snapshot of the entire agreement.” Thanks for reading, and keep plugged in with What’s Next.
Ben Hancock
Ben Hancock is a San Francisco-based reporter covering litigation, technology, finance, and the future of law. He writes a weekly news briefing covering those topics called "What's Next." Ben can be reached via email at [email protected], or on Twitter: @benghancoc
cryptocurrencies, by simply sharing this page. Don't keep it to
Help friends or someone you care about discover blockchain and
yourself.....share Blockchain Company (BC).
Did You Know About This?
You can curate a Personal Blockchain Page right here on Blockchain Company ( BC ) like these 2 great user examples here:
http://www.blockchaincompany.info/Paula
http://www.blockchaincompany.info/Francisco
Show
your blockchain page off to your employer, colleagues and friends. It
demonstrates your professional awareness and competency of this
revolutionary paradigm changing the world. It's free if you are a
consumer user. Just Create your Account here in less than 3 mins!
Or
Click Create Account above in the upper right corner. Instructions how
to curate your blockchain page from information you discover on BC, is
sent in your email after you sign up.
You might be able to capture your ' first name " unique url for your blockchain page too! Like : http://www.blockchaincompany.info/robert
You
may be entitled to cryptocurrency tokens, offers and discounts at any
time in the future once you are a user on our platform.- By Admin
- 0 comments
- 3 likes
- Like
- Share
-
VISA and Mastercard make it harder to buy Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies | T... (techcrunch.com)
Justin Mauldin Contributor
Justin Mauldin is the founder of Salient PR and an investor in cryptocurrency.
More posts by this contributor:
Sometime in the last week Bitcoin investors started noticing additional fees on their bank statements. It turns out that VISA and Mastercard both decided (how convenient!) to reclassify the way Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency purchases are processed on their networks. Incidents like this pose several challenges for the cryptocurrency industry short-term, but also show just how scared the incumbents really are.
Currently, if you want to buy bitcoin, ethereum or any other alt-coin instantly, the only option is to use your debit or credit card. Transferring funds from your bank has lower fees, but takes several days. Coinbase has long accepted debit and credit cards for instant buys, however, passing on to the buyer the standard 4 percent credit card transaction fee.
Now, it seems VISA and Mastercard have quietly reclassified the way Coinbase credit card purchases are processed on their networks. Coinbase transactions (and presumably all other exchanges, as well) are now being labeled as a “cash advance” rather than a “purchase.
” Fees will vary by institution, but what this means is that using a credit card will result in an additional 5 percent fee tacked on by your credit card merchant, in addition to the 4 percent credit card transaction fee already passed on by Coinbase. Even worse is that cash advances do not fall under the standard interest-free grace period that consumers expect for other credit card purchases.
The moment the Coinbase purchase goes through, the transaction accrues and compounds daily. If that isn’t bad enough, the interest rate is also higher for cash advances — an astonishing 25.99 percent in one case. Lastly, but equally as important for some consumers, these purchases will no longer qualify for earning credit card points.
For example, a $5,000 instant bitcoin purchase made on Coinbase using a VISA or Mastercard credit card will now result in roughly $500 in fees + interest too.
For most people, losing 10 percent of your investment in fees means that the practice of using a credit card to buy cryptocurrency is effectively over. It will become more difficult for investors to purchase bitcoin and other cryptocurrency on their terms.
Transferring funds via ACH takes three to five business days. In a world where cryptocurrency prices can swing wildly in either direction, a week feels like a nail-biting eternity.
In an email to all customers last night Coinbase confirmed the change, claiming “the MCC code for digital currency purchases was changed by a number of the major credit card networks” and will now allow banks and card issuers to charge “additional cash advance fees.
” When asked for comment a spokesperson for Mastercard had this to say: “Over the past few weeks, we have clarified to acquirers — or the merchant’s bank — the right transaction or merchant category code to use for these type of transactions (cryptocurrency purchases). This provides a consistent view of such purchases for both merchants and issuers.
” If anything, this change makes things more complicated in the short term. Authorities are already divided on what bitcoin “is”: the IRS has already said bitcoin is not “currency” and treats it as taxable property, however, credit card companies are now telling us that buying bitcoin is the same thing as pulling cash out of an ATM. Both things can’t be true.
By reclassifying Coinbase (and presumably all other exchanges, as well), VISA and Mastercard are doing their best to make it harder, slower and more expensive for people to invest in cryptocurrency.
Credit card companies believe it’s in their best interest to turn away millions in additional revenue in exchange for slowing the rush of investment into bitcoin. In many ways, that’s true.
The rise of bitcoin and future cryptocurrency is tied to the eventual fall of financial middlemen like VISA and Mastercard. Maybe they just woke up to it.
Discover even more from Techcrunch here: https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/05/visa-and-mastercard-make-it-harder-to-buy-bitcoin-and-other-crypto...
Help friends or someone you care about discover blockchain and
cryptocurrencies, by simply sharing this page. Don't keep it to
yourself.....share Blockchain Company (BC).
Did You Know About This?
You can curate a Personal Blockchain Page right here on Blockchain Company ( BC ) like these 2 great user examples here:
http://www.blockchaincompany.info/Paula
http://www.blockchaincompany.info/Francisco
Show
your blockchain page off to your employer, colleagues and friends. It
demonstrates your professional awareness and competency of this
revolutionary paradigm changing the world. It's free if you are a
consumer user. Just Create your Account here in less than 3 mins!
Or
Click Create Account above in the upper right corner. Instructions how
to curate your blockchain page from information you discover on BC, is
sent in your email after you sign up.
You might be able to capture your ' first name " unique url for your blockchain page too! Like : http://www.blockchaincompany.info/robert
You
may be entitled to cryptocurrency tokens, offers and discounts at any
time in the future once you are a user on our platform.
- By Admin
- 0 comments
- 2 likes
- Like
- Share
-
BY JOHN RAMPTON2 HOURS AGO
In recent years, the way work gets done has begun to shift. Our future world is being built by an army of independent consultants and freelancers who allow businesses and employees to enjoy more freedom.
Freelancers now make up more than 35% of the American workforce and are responsible for a significant amount of the U.S. GDP.Blockchain is a unique technology, capable of decentralizing networks and allowing people to connect.
This decentralization is likely to spur a wave of disruption through its ability to create distributed digital ledgers that act as transparent and living “records of transactions.
”These records are accessible by anyone within the system, and are verifiable by empirical data. With blockchains in place across a variety of industries and niches, we can eradicate many of the frictions that currently exist in financial and business markets.
Since blockchains are still (relatively) new pieces of technology, we are not exactly sure which decentralized applications will survive long term. The only certainty is that with advancement comes disruption, and we are likely to see fundamental shifts in the way many common markets work.
One of the more exciting ways in which blockchain is affecting an industry is in the independent freelancers’ space. Freelancers and independent contractors make up a sizable chunk of the U.S. population: there are currently over 55 million domestic freelancers.
Though this group has been growing significantly over the past several years, they are still plagued with annoying transaction costs and plenty of competition.Blockchains, in theory, will open up new doors for freelancers across the globe. Let’s take a look at a few ways in which this technology might change the future of the freelancer industry.
1. An investment orientationFreelancers are already starting to opt into getting paid with cryptocurrencies. People’s familiarity with and confidence in cryptocurrencies have empowered them to receive payment with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.
As cryptocurrencies near mass-market penetration, freelancers are becoming more willing to think about investments rather than a typical focus on salary.
This “investment mentality” is a completely new way for creators to think about their income streams. There will be many fresh opportunities for investment managers and advisors to help these freelancers with their newfound willingness to take risks and focus on letting their wealth grow itself.
2. Data monetizationCompanies like Datum, a marketplace for data built on top of the Ethereum chain, use trust graphs to allow users to store data in a decentralized database and later monetize the information. While the back end of this technology is highly complex, trust graphs use blockchains to create secure, trusted networks for storing data.
Everyday contractors passively collect enormous amounts of personal and professional data. From Upwork reputations to Github statistics, the data that freelancers collect can be put into Datum and made queryable in a blockchain database. All of this data is then stored and made available to anyone who is interested in purchasing it.
Big players, including actor William Shatner, have endorsed Datum as a way for people to take control of their data. This impacts freelancers in a number of ways. First, it allows employers to make more informed decisions about who to hire. Second, all of the data stored in the database will be verified by third-party APIs, meaning it will be impossible for freelancers to gamify reviews and cheat the system.
Finally, freelancers can now earn about $2,000 per year via monetization of their data. This is even how I raised enough money for my latest project Calendar.
3. Verifiable historyOne of the biggest problems facing the freelance industry today is spam and fake reviews.
Smart contracts (a key component of blockchain technology) are stored directly in a trust network, meaning they cannot be changed or hacked without the rest of the network knowing.In this way, blockchains will enable freelancers to worry less about promoting themselves and more about maximizing metrics for clients. Furthermore, companies can rest easier now, knowing that freelancers are not able to tamper with information online.
4. New opportunities to specializeWith any new piece of technology comes an opportunity for freelancers to dig into a new niche and specialize in a field. Future companies are going to need blockchain experts and specialiststo help them set up smart contracts and efficient blockchain systems.
Right now, there are not nearly enough specialists in this space to support any type of expansion in demand on the consumer side.As demand continues to exceed supply, being a blockchain expert will be highly lucrative. For at least the next 10 years, there are going to be plenty of opportunities for anyone who knows how to build digital contract systems.
John Rampton is a serial entrepreneur who now focuses on helping people to build amazing products and services that scale. He is founder of the online payments company Due.
You can discover even more articles like this on Mashable here: http://mashable.com/2017/11/06/blockchain-freelancers/#LLcWmhKJQGqG- By Admin
- 0 comments
- 3 likes
- Like
- Share
-
By strict definition, blockchain is a global digital ledger of economic transactions that is transparent, continually updated by countless users, and considered by many as almost impossible to corrupt or hack. But in the broader sense, blockchain is also a lightning rod for highly charged opinion, confusion, and even fear.
Some argue that blockchain will completely transform finance, accounting, and auditing. Others are decidedly more circumspect regarding its impact. And a certain segment is nervous, not knowing whether blockchain will make portions of the accounting profession obsolete—perhaps large ones, specifically as it relates to the current audit and tax practices focusing on compliance.
“I don’t think it is going to cut our profession out,” L. Gary Boomer, CPA/CITP, CGMA, former CEO of Boomer Consulting, and now the company’s strategist and visionary, said in an interview. “But one of the things we have in our profession is the Rube Goldberg machine: A lot of processes that maybe don’t add value. If you’re not adding value, you’d better figure out how you’re going to provide value in the future.”Boomer, who is based in Manhattan, Kan., gave a presentation on blockchain Tuesday at the AICPA ENGAGE conference in Las Vegas.
He covered a topic that might seem intimidating given that blockchain is not only new—less than 10 years old—but also enigmatic even for the most intelligent finance professionals. “There’s much of it that is different, complex, and hard to understand with current mindsets,” Boomer acknowledged.
There’s also the misconception that blockchain will smack the financial world with an immediate, tsunami-like force. “This is more of a transformation, and we are in the early stages of it,” Boomer noted. “So we need to know the right questions to ask: Where is this going to have the greatest impact on the accounting profession, and what is the timeline of that?
”As to the timeline part, blockchain’s ascent continues to accelerate. “No one was talking about it before 2008,” Boomer said. “Then in 2013 we started to see the rise of bitcoin, a blockchain consortium in 2015, and proof of concept in 2016.” He expects that blockchain may begin to replace legacy accounting systems around 2023, “and by 2025 it will be widely accepted.
”And insofar as the impact it will have, much depends on how finance professionals educate and position themselves during the run-up. Boomer stressed that once CPAs understand the basics of blockchain, they can move toward learning how to harness it. “It’s going to provide opportunities if we have the right mindsets, skill sets, and tool sets,” he said.
To that end, Boomer highlighted a number of crucial concepts that help explain blockchain and give insight into its value propositions for the accounting profession.1. Blockchain is secure and immutable
“While everyone thinks of the internet as public, blockchain protects transactions and increases the security and privacy,” Boomer said. In theory it cannot be hacked because that would require overpowering all the computers that contribute to and update the ledger network—a feat akin to hijacking the entire internet.2. Think of blockchain as the ‘internet of value’
As opposed to focusing on the exchange and transmission of information, the internet of value centers on transactions. That concept also gives a clue to where blockchain’s impact on accounting will be felt first.Boomer related that “the big questions I always hear and that most practical CPAs have is, ‘What’s the killer app, and what’s going to happen first?’
” He believes that the first movers will be in accounts payable and receivable, with either intercompany transactions or client-customer transactions. “It will verify the payment, the dates, and there will be no question that the buyer sent the payment. Buyer and seller have to collaborate, so as a result there’s no confusion. Blockchain is built on trust, and we need more trust in transactions.”3. Blockchain data will create new business opportunities
Boomer noted that because the speed of transactions on blockchain is increased significantly, “this has value for the audit, which is typically performed months after the fact. It will be faster and cheaper, but I don’t think auditors should throw in the towel.”Instead, they will need to develop a more datacentric approach. “They have to be more involved with the data and use it with a forward rather than historic perspective,” Boomer said. “The result is a higher-valued service.4. Studying up on blockchain will pay off
Boomer contended that finance professionals must make time now to learn all they can about blockchain. He recommended Don and Alex Tapscott’s book Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business, and the World. Don Tapscott has also given a popular TED talk on the subject, now seen more than 1.6 million times.
The Big Four accounting firms, he added, have also released white papers and studies on blockchain that are worth seeking out.Accountants who get a grip on blockchain today will be the ones who successfully pivot their services tomo...continue reading:
http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2017/jun/blockchain-decentralized-ledger-system-201716738.h...-
Admin Blockchain Company It is in your professional interest to Join BlockchainCompany.info and start earning points for making quality comments on blockchain articles and videos you discover on our platform. You earn points when users ' like ' your comments and other activities. Your points may be converted into tokens in future Blockchain Company ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings). Start learning and contributing to the impact of Blockchain as a new technology and how it affects you! Don't miss out, learn and participate today.
-