Download or read book The Other Side of the Ledger Blockchain Makes a New Entry in the Historical Record of Copyright Law and Technology written by Aaron M. Lane and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Copyright Law of Spatial Data written by Kanchana Kariyawasam and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-08-09 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a thorough comparative analysis of copyright protection of spatial data across Australia, the United States of America (USA), and the European Union. With the emergence of terrestrial scanners, drones, robotics, and artificial intelligence (AI), the acquisition of data has recently reshaped the landscape of the survey industry, highlighting the importance of protecting the intellectual rights of surveyors. This book investigates the distinct approaches taken by each jurisdiction in protecting copyrights in spatial data and explores commonalities and disparities between these jurisdictions, highlighting best practices. The book also explores the alternative means of protecting spatial data and provides final recommendations aimed at policymakers, with the overarching objective of nurturing a balanced copyright system. This book will be of interest to students and scholars in the field of copyright law and spatial data.
Download or read book Blockchain Revolution written by Don Tapscott and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-05-10 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Blockchain technology is powering our future. As the technology behind cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and Facebook's Libra, open software platforms like Ethereum, and disruptive companies like Ripple, it’s too important to ignore. In this revelatory book, Don Tapscott, the bestselling author of Wikinomics, and his son, blockchain expert Alex Tapscott, bring us a brilliantly researched, highly readable, and essential book about the technology driving the future of the economy. Blockchain is the ingeniously simple, revolutionary protocol that allows transactions to be simultaneously anonymous and secure by maintaining a tamperproof public ledger of value. Though it’s best known as the technology that drives bitcoin and other digital currencies, it also has the potential to go far beyond currency, to record virtually everything of value to humankind, from birth and death certificates to insurance claims, land titles, and even votes. Blockchain is also essential to understand if you’re an artist who wants to make a living off your art, a consumer who wants to know where that hamburger meat really came from, an immigrant who’s tired of paying big fees to send money home to your loved ones, or an entrepreneur looking for a new platform to build a business. And those examples are barely the tip of the iceberg. As with major paradigm shifts that preceded it, blockchain technology will create winners and losers. This book shines a light on where it can lead us in the next decade and beyond.
Download or read book Blockchain and the Law written by Francisco Pereira Coutinho and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-12-17 with total page 155 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book discusses the dogmatic (that what is settled) and the dynamic (that what is changing) aspects of the relationship between blockchain and the law from a critical perspective. With contributions from legal and financial experts involved in both academy and business from Europe, Africa and North and South America, the book looks at the abstract complexities and practical challenges of regulating blockchain technology and its developments, such as crypto assets and smart contracts, from the perspectives of financial, tax, civil, and international law. Moreover, the book also delves into some exciting and cutting-edge related topics such as blockchain applications for litigation, CBDC and elections. The volume offers insightful considerations that will be helpful for legal practitioners involved in the crypto and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) phenomenon. Francisco Pereira Coutinho is Associate Professor at the Nova School of Law in Lisbon, Portugal. Martinho Lucas Pires is Teaching Assistant in the Department of Law of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa in Lisbon, Portugal. Bernardo Correia Barradas is a Lawyer and Senior Legal Advisor in payments in Washington DC, United States.
Download or read book Can Blockchain Revolutionize International Trade written by Emmanuelle Ganne and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Trade has always been shaped by technological innovation. In recent times, a new technology, Blockchain, has been greeted by many as the next big game-changer. Can Blockchain revolutionize international trade? This publication seeks to demystify the Blockchain phenomenon by providing a basic explanation of the technology. It analyses the relevance of this technology for international trade by reviewing how it is currently used or can be used in the various areas covered by WTO rules. In doing so, it provides an insight into the extent to which this technology could affect cross-border trade in goods and services, and intellectual property rights. It discusses the potential of Blockchain for reducing trade costs and enhancing supply chain transparency as well as the opportunities it provides for small-scale producers and companies. Finally, it reviews various challenges that must be addressed before the technology can be used on a wide scale and have a significant impact on international trade.
Download or read book Blockchain and Private International Law written by Andrea Bonomi and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2023-11-13 with total page 807 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The open access publication of this book has been published with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation. Blockchain is the first global mechanism for the transfer and storage of value. Despite being conceived as an alternative to state and law, the technology and its use cases raise many legal questions, most notably, regarding jurisdiction and applicable law with respect to transactions and assets recorded on the blockchain. The issue is complex given the decentralised nature of the network. In this volume, academics and practitioners from various countries try to provide detailed answers to these questions as they relate to crypto-assets, cryptocurrencies, crypto derivatives, stablecoins, Central Bank Digital Currencies and Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs), as well as specific transactions and issues, such as property rights, secured transactions, smart contracts and bankruptcy. With specific chapters on national approaches (Germany, Japan, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, United States), the volume explores the need and possibility for legal harmonisation of these issues through global fora, such as the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) UNIDROIT.
Download or read book Summary of Paul Vigna Michael J Casey s The Truth Machine written by Everest Media and published by Everest Media LLC. This book was released on 2022-07-24T22:59:00Z with total page 47 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The most subversive, anti-authoritarian idea in finance is a ledger. Bitcoin, released in 2009 by a person or persons using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, was designed to be an end-around to the banks and governments that have for centuries been the guardians of our financial systems. #2 Ledgers are record-keeping devices that help deal with the problems of complexity and trust. They help us keep track of all the multiple exchanges that make up society. Without them, the giant, teeming cities of twenty-first-century society would not exist. #3 The blockchain is a digital ledger that is decentralized, and it is this feature that allows peer-to-peer transactions to take place. The distributed nature of the blockchain ledger makes it virtually impossible for anyone to change the historical record once it has been accepted. #4 The breakdown of trust in the banking sector, and the subsequent financial crisis, was a result of a vast manipulation of ledgers. The recorded value of the assets those ledgers were supposed to track turned out to be largely vapor.
Download or read book Copyright in the Blockchain Era written by Alexander Ivanovitch Savelyev and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 23 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The paper focuses on various legal-related aspects of the application of blockchain technologies in the copyright sphere. Specifically, it outlines the existing challenges for distribution of copyrighted works in the digital environment, how they can be solved with blockchain, and what associated issues need to be addressed in this regard. It is argued that blockchain can introduce long-awaited transparency in matters of copyright ownership chain; substantially mitigate risks of online piracy by enabling control over digital copy and creating a civilized market for “used” digital content. It also allows to combine the simplicity of application of creative commons/open source type of licenses with revenue streams, and thus facilitate fair compensation of authors by means of cryptocurrency payments and Smart contracts. However, these benefits do not come without a price: many new issues will need to be resolved to enable the potential of blockchain technologies. Among them are: where to store copyrighted content (on blockchain or “off-chain”) and the associated need to adjust the legal status of online intermediaries; how to find a right balance between immutable nature of blockchain records and the necessity to adjust them due to the very nature of copyright law, which assigns ownership based on a set of informal facts, not visible to the public. Blockchain as a kind of time stamping service cannot itself ensure the trustworthiness of facts, which originate “off-chain”. Much work needs to be done on the legal side: special provisions aimed at facilitating user's trust in blockchain records and their good faith usage of copyrighted works based on them need to be introduced and transactions with cryptocurrencies have to be legalized as well as the status of Smart contracts and their legal consequences. Finally, the economics of blockchain copyright management systems need to be carefully considered in order to ensure that they will have necessary network effects. If those issues are resolved in a satisfactory way, blockchain has the potential to rewrite how the copyright industry functions and digital content is distributed.
Download or read book The Blockchain and the New Architecture of Trust written by Kevin Werbach and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2023-08-15 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 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.
Download or read book White Paper Blockchain in Trade Facilitation written by United Nations and published by . This book was released on 2020-12-28 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Blockchain technology is one of the most talked about topics in the sphere of information technology as well as in the facilitation of electronic business. The cryptocurrency Blockchain applications are well known and well-publicized, however, this technology has the potential to influence the way that we do business today, as its use expands to new areas. Blockchain, which is one form of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), offers opportunities to increase the reliability and security of trade transactions. The repetition of data among multiple ledgers in a network, as well as the immutability of information after it has been integrated into the Blockchain, can increase levels of confidence for both traders and regulators.
Download or read book Big Data and Global Trade Law written by Mira Burri and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-07-29 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Origin of a Specie written by Anoop Bungay and published by MQCC™ Money Quality Conformity Control Organization incorporated as MortgageQuote Canada Corp.. This book was released on 2019-08-29 with total page 1109 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Welcome to the public disclosure of the world's first body of required reading for ALL duly appointed, lawfully elected or employed persons in public office or in private enterprise, as leaders; legislators, policymakers; regulators; technical experts; scientists; members of Top Management; global professional liability insurers including corporate risk insurers; legal professionals; law enforcement; and business persons; promoters; consultants; investors; students - in at least 119 countries - who seek primary source, traceable, verifiable and immutable knowledge on the origins, commercialization, litigation-testing and National and International Standardization of the "Principles of 'BlockChain'" and related concept system subject matter: including but not limited electronic peer-to-peer finance (non-bank, non-institutional, non-syndicated, non-regulated or regulatory exempt, free trading; (P2P)/Private/Crypto/Secret/Shadow) utility tokens, securities token. This global public disclosure is designed to be your practical and scholarly, primary source knowledge commencing from at least as early as 14-August-2001 until present day (September 2019 - or as of latest update) on the origin of the "Principles of 'BlockChain'" and related concept system matter; and is designed to be relied upon as a legislative-, regulatory-, public policy-making-, academic-, business-, investment- , professional-, technical-, and scientific reference, now and into the future. As an electronic - (intellectual property token; trademark brand: MQCC InPUT™ ) - format encyclopedic authoritative reference, this First Edition will be continually improved until the next edition is published. If you are a lawfully elected or duly appointed public official (Head of State, Senator, Minister, Legislator, Policy Maker, Regulator); lawfully elected, duly appointed or employed member of a regulated, reporting or private organization in the role of Top Management (Chief Executive Officer (CEO)- level or Board of Director-level) member; a legal professional; an professional liability insurance/organization risk underwriter; an investor, academic or interested person: before you spend any of your personal money (or any more personal money) and your valuable personal time on 'BlockChain'-anything or 'crypto'-anything; put this electronic reference [intellectual property utility token (distinctively known as the MQCC™-registered, global trademark: MQCC InPUT™)] in your personal library and learn directly from the person (Author) who: <*> first identified and commercialized (starting at least as early as April 9, 2005) a globally accessible, peer-to-peer electronic finance system; (cryptofinancial network). <*> first registered (starting at least as early as May 9, 2008) a subordinate Quality Management System to ISO 9001:2000; ISO 9001:2008 and the current risk-based ISO 9001:2015 in order to publicly prove to "the world", that the globally accessible system-network methods and products are better, safer, more efficient and in order to establish at-a-glance (prima facie) levels of trust - at a global scale; <*> Over the past 19 years, has personally introduced and educated the following classes of people on the origins and over-14 years of successfully commercialized, National and International consensus-standards-based, application the overarching concept system including: the "Principles of 'BlockChain'; utility tokens, securities tokens, conformity science: *> public officials (Ministers, Legislators, Policy Makers, Regulators) *> lawyers employed by law enforcement agencies *> lawyers employed by public market securities regulators *> CEO's, Executive Officers, members of Top Management of regulated, reporting or private business organizations *> retail customers (investors and investees) *> and more <*> Developed, what is today, the world's most trusted and trustworthy global system-network of its kind that, for over 12 years, meets and exceeds United States a (US) Department of Defense (DoD), General Services Administration (GSA), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Higher-level contract quality requirements and integrates elements of the globally trusted US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Framework Core for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity. This encyclopedic authoritative reference takes you from the start, from at least as early as 14-August-2001 to Present day (September 2019). Now that this compendium is published, if any consultant or business promoter, anywhere in the world (at least in 119 countries where ISO 9000 is considered a National Standard class of family of standards) on matters claims to know what he or she is talking about and has not proven to you that they have read this important work of public disclosure, then they really don't know scientific-based, historically-accurate, information timeline. -> Learn how the Author has been telling CyrptoExchange CEO's to learn the MQCC Standards™, so they can make their cryptoexchanges better, safer and more efficient for the inexperienced global public and regulatory community -- months (and years) before sad events occurred when some exchanges suffered catastrophic shutdowns because Top Management did not have and still do not have, the historically proven systems that they need to assure better, safer and more efficient cryptofinancial operations; which MQCC developed. --> Learn how some CEO's or Top Management of Banks and Public Securities Exchanges have been explained that an over 14 year-old fully functional system built on the "Principles of 'BlockChain'" exists and will prevent corporate shareholder financial loss caused by risk due to uncertainty created by nonconformity events like mortgage fraud and ineffective public (reporting securities issuer) company operators. -> Learn how a proven regulatory-integrated framework of co-existence between public securities regulators and non-public securities regulators and regulatees has evolved since at least as early as August 14, 2001. -> Learn how the term Bungay Unification of Quantum Processes Algorithm also represented as the "Principles of 'BlockChain'" was abstracted from observation of the originating object or phenomenon. -> Learn how to find out who is a competent consultant and who is not a competent consultant on matters related to the "Principles of 'BlockChain'" -> Learn how to the global community has misunderstood the origins and wasted (in some cases, literally) millions of dollars in ideas that are "BlockChain-in-Name-Only". -> Learn how "The Principles of 'BlockChain'" have nothing to do with computer programming language C++; which was used to program the bitcoin, alpha-state, experimental software program. -> Learn about the discovery and commercialization of SYSTEMS-LEVEL Artificial Intelligence (SL) by the yours sincerely. -> Learn how commercially available suite of systems, technology, services and products work for any size organization: 1 owner-operator to an organization with 1,000,000 million employees and more. This encyclopedic authoritative reference will be your best investment in this subject matter, ever. More about this encyclopedic authoritative reference The "Principles of 'BlockChain'" were naturally discovered out of a need to create a governance and operating system for the world's first "peer-to-peer (P2P) electronic finance system-network" for the trade in non-bank, non-institutional, non-syndicated, non-regulated or regulatory exempt, free trading securities and related financial instruments; commencing from at least as early as August 14, 2001. As a reminder, before you invest or spend any money on "BlockChain"-anything, or "crypto"-anything; learn from from the person who first discovered and then commercialized it, since at least as early as April 9, 2005 at www.privatelender.org; a person who also happens to be the world's leading authority on National and International Standards-Class NISC™ (in at least 119 countries), Quality Management System-integrated, regulatory-integrated, litigation-tested, BlockChain-based Systems, Technology, Services and Products. WARNING: If you have any question of comprehension or understanding, seek professional counsel before you - another friendly reminder - spend even one more unit of fiat currency ("real" money) on any "BlockChain" or "Crypto" project. Ask your local legislator, lawyer or, in the future your local conformity scientist and PROFESSIONAL BLOCKCHAINEER™/®. Remember this authoritative encyclopedic reference is written by the person who developed the world's first commercialized an application of the "Principles of 'BlockChain'" in Commerce for a peer-to-peer electronic finance system. A body of transmundane knowledge encompassing a variety of knowledge disciplines. Having built "it" first and having built "it" right, means - despite being the CEO of a commercial finance sector organization - the Author is more or less "under the radar" from the scrutiny of the general public due to successful application of the sub-principle "effective disintermediation"; as such, nobody on Earth has really been afforded an opportunity to "look behind the history" - in a single, primary source compendium - to see how delicate, comprehensive, complex and beneficial conformity science and the "Principles of 'BlockChain'", truly are. Not to mention the painstaking diligent years of maintaining the momentum. If you, your family, your company or your country is even "thinking" about investing limited sovereign resources and valuable time into the "Principles of 'BlockChain'", "crypto"-anything, "token"-anything and related matters (or want to be an authority on the subject), then learn about its origins, its regulatory-scrutinized, litigation-tested commercial applications of the present-day, and its future. Especially if you are (or will be, one day) employed as a Head of State, Legislator, Policymaker, Regulator, Lawyer, member of "Top Management" (Chief Executive Officer (CEO) or Board Member of a regulated or non-regulated Organization, Academic (student, undergraduate, graduate, doctoral, post-doctoral research), Journalist, Professional Liability Insurer, Investor, Head of a Family Office; or, if you are your normal, everyday person, just curious about the world. This work of scientific-commercial-regulatory-financial literature is both a public service and an introduction to the foundational body of knowledge that led to the discovery of the "Principles of 'BlockChain'", the birth of binary digit non-bank, non-institutional, non-syndicated, non-regulated or regulatory exempt, free trading securities and related financial instruments; also known as Peer-to-Peer (P2P)/Private/Crypto/Secret/Shadow securities and related financial instruments; Binary Digit Financial Instruments or Digital Assets and the Discovery of Conformity Science. It is the foundation of evolutionary digital commerce (a new field of science for the study of the evolutionary (revolutionary, perhaps?) processes related to the discovery of the "Principles of 'BlockChain'" and production of binary digit financial instruments (digital assets), systems, technologies, services and products. The body of evidence - as you would expect from the creator of a system built on principles that creates trust through transparency, immutability, validation, traceability and verifiability - is itself, traceable, verifiable, immutable and transparent. You will not find this content anywhere else. MQCC is the point of origination. The Bungay Unification of Quantum Processes Algorithm: when Quantum Unification Theory met Commerce. A revolutionary paradigm shift in how commerce is transacted, allowing for realizable quality, conformity and control goals to be achieved; resulting in long term, sustainable inflows of money. And lots of it. If you agree that the "Principles of 'BlockChain'" offer the utmost level of immutable data (knowledge) veracity, validity, verifiability, transparency, proof and truth; then you will understand the non-trivial implications of this history of the discovery of the "Principles of 'BlockChain'". Origin of a Specie™: an authoritative encyclopedic reference that only the discoverer of the world's first globally accessible, regulatory-recognized, regulatory-integrated and regulatory-trusted, commercialized "Principles of 'BlockChain'"-based system for the trade in non-bank, non-institutional, non-syndicated, non-regulated or regulatory exempt, free trading securities and related financial instruments; also known as Peer-to-Peer (P2P)/Private/Crypto/Secret/Shadow securities and related financial instruments (Binary Digit Utility Tokens for Digital Assets), could write.
Download or read book Wired Shut written by Tarleton Gillespie and published by MIT Press (MA). This book was released on 2007 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While the public and the media have been distracted by the story of Napster, warnings about the evils of "piracy", and lawsuits by the recording and film industries, the enforcement of copyright law in the digital world has quietly shifted from regulating copying to regulating the design of technology. Lawmakers and commercial interests are pursuing what might be called a technical fix: instead of specifying what can and cannot be done legally with a copyrighted work, this new approach calls for the strategic use of encryption technologies to build standards of copyright directly into digital devices so that some uses are possible and others rendered impossible. In Wired Shut, Tarleton Gillespie examines this shift to "technical copy protection" and its profound political, economic, and cultural implications. Gillespie reveals that the real story is not the technological controls themselves but the political, economic, and cultural arrangements being put in place to make them work. He shows that this approach to digital copyright depends on new kinds of alliances among content and technology industries, legislators, regulators, and the courts, and is changing the relationship between law and technology in the process. The film and music industries, he claims, are deploying copyright in order to funnel digital culture into increasingly commercial patterns that threaten to undermine the democratic potential of a network society. In this broad context, Gillespie examines three recent controversies over digital copyright: the failed effort to develop copy protection for portable music players with the Strategic Digital Music Initiative (SDMI); the encryption system used in DVDs, and the film industry's legal response to the tools that challenged them; and the attempt by the FCC to mandate the "broadcast flag" copy protection system for digital television. In each, he argues that whether or not such technical constraints ever succeed, the political alignments required will profoundly shape the future of cultural expression in a digital age.
Download or read book Blockchain and the Law written by Dariusz Szostek and published by Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft. This book was released on 2019 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyses the new blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) in term of its impact on law, contracts and the digital economy. It discusses global legislation in the blockchain and its implications. The analysis of contracts includes the Bitcoin system and the Bitcoin Blockchain. The book is written in an international and European perspective. It is characterised by a practical approach and addressed to lawyers who want to deepen their knowledge about legal aspects of new technologies such as the blockchain and other modern IT tools, but also to entrepreneurs, IT specialists, developers and IT managers in the implementation of DLT and block technologies
Download or read book Blockchain Demystified written by Prakash Prasad and published by Prakash Prasad. This book was released on 2022-02-15 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Blockchain Demystified: A Story in a layman's Term - Simple Explanation of Complex Technology Blockchain is highly complex technology for a common man to understand. This book simplifies the complex technology in a story form so that even a kid can understand. It is simplest explanation of blockchain technology for anyone who needs a quick and realistic view of Blockchain.
Download or read book Report of the Attorney General s Cyber Digital Task Force Cryptocurrency Enforcement Framework written by U. S. Department U.S. Department of Justice and published by . This book was released on 2021-01-21 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Innovation can drive a society forward. But innovation does not occur in a vacuum. Public policy can establish background conditions that help the innovative spirit thrive--or create an environment in which that spirit is inhibited, or suppressed.Even in societies where transformative scientific and technological advancements are achievable, public policy again plays a critical mediating role. In the wrong hands, or without appropriate safeguards and oversight, these advancements can facilitate great human suffering. Just ask the political enemies of authoritarian regimes that deploy surveillance tools Orwell never could have imagined. Or, closer to home, listen to the child victims of unspeakable sexual exploitation whose images and livestreamed abuse are so easily transmitted across the internet.Technological innovation and human flourishing are complementary concepts, but the former does not guarantee the latter. Good public policy--and the fair and equitable enforcement of such policy--can help bring the two into alignment. And even as too much regulation undoubtedly stifles innovation (and human flourishing, too), the absence of law's protections can endanger progress across both dimensions. It takes careful consideration, and a deep and ongoing immersion in the facts, to understand when, and how, law should intervene. Once law's empire has established its root in a particular domain, it requires equally careful consideration (and humility on the part of government officials) to ensure that regulation goes no further than is required--that government action, in other words, reflects enforcement only of "those wise restraints that make us free."It should be no surprise, for example, that researchers within the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology "have been investigating blockchain technologies at multiple levels: from use cases, applications and existing services, to protocols, security guarantees, and cryptographic mechanisms." Or that the U.S. Department of Defense's recently-issued Digital Modernization Strategy specifically identifies blockchain technology as having "promise to provide increased effectiveness, efficiency, and security." Or that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently released a detailed vision for how it plans to deploy blockchain for food safety-related purposes.vi Or that--in the cryptocurrency space specifically--"the Federal Reserve is active in conducting research and experimentation related to distributed ledger technologies and the potential use cases for digital currencies," including by partnering with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to "build and test a hypothetical digital currency oriented to central bank uses." Without doubt, cryptocurrency represents a transformative way to store and exchange value.But as the following pages make clear, despite its relatively brief existence, this technology already plays a role in many of the most significant criminal and national security threats our nation faces. As the Task Force has found, illicit uses of cryptocurrency typically fall into three categories: (1) financial transactions associated with the commission of crimes; (2) money laundering and the shielding of legitimate activity from tax, reporting, or other legal requirements; or (3) crimes, such as theft, directly implicating the cryptocurrency marketplace itself. Part I of this Enforcement Framework examines in detail each of those categories.
