Let’s start with a quick logic problem. “All law students are nearsighted. Some nearsighted people cannot tolerate contact lenses. Therefore, some law students cannot tolerate contact lenses.” Is this reasoning correct? You only have three seconds to answer the question. Time’s up. What’s your answer? With only three seconds to think about it, […]
In my previous post I addressed the issue of how to ensure the integrity of content as ephemeral as that of a digital file, in terms of how it passes from the controlled safekeeping of the physical format in which the file is recorded to a purely “logical” system of file content identification resulting from […]
In the previous post in this series, I tried to explain how digitization is a unique way of converting information to a binary digital code (a “linguistic” question of how data is coded) so that management of that information can be mechanized electronically (a technological question). The use of language to convey information Going one […]
When us attorneys move about the digital world with a specifically law-based mindset (that is, not as mere tech users), the first thing we run up against are the very concepts of the digital world or, better yet, the terminology. We start throwing around certain words – computerized, digital, electronic, telematic, file – whose exact […]
I ended the previous post on the subject of David Chaum and how his DigiCash did not lead to a proper break with traditional cash. The disruptive leap in this respect, even if still only in a theoretical or speculative realm, is attributable to the following two characters in this story. The first of these […]
In the first post in this series on the intellectual origin of blockchain technology, I talked about two figures I consider to be early forerunners: Alan Turing and John von Neumann. In this second installment, I will look at two more recent figures: Tim May and David Chaum (and in a third post, I will […]
In my previous contribution to this blog I talked about certain intellectual obstacles that can trip up jurists when dealing with the definition of smart contract and blockchain technology. The first of these is a deficit in technology training. One of the particular features of this technology, now a worldwide talking point due to its […]
Jurists tend to come up against two large obstacles when it comes to dealing with smart contracts: – The first problem is coming to grips with the technology; both the specific technology involved in the architecture and mechanics of a blockchain, and general computing technology. On the first subject, what exactly is a peer-to-peer network? […]
