LEXPERT MAGAZINE
|
JUNE 2018 63
| BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY |
fruitful for law departments. Timothy
Hill, technology policy adviser at the Law
Society of England and Wales told media
that Walport' s report makes it clear that
blockchains "are a powerful innovation
that could have a profound impact on both
the law and the provision of legal services."
Indeed, the applications seem endless.
"[Smart contracts] could be used to de-
clare wills, transfer property or create self-
executing contracts," Hill said. "ey also
raise profound questions about the future
balance between technical code and legal
code – something Walport suggests that
lawyers and technologists will need to
work together to get right."
Blockchain's most telling inroads so
far have been in the financial services in-
dustry, which to a large degree functions
as a centralized intermediary. According
to Rob Dawkins, McGowan's partner
at BLG in Vancouver, the emergence of
cryptocurrency "promises to give a bank
account to anyone with a mobile phone,
no ID required."
In other words, the services of banks
and other intermediaries will not neces-
sarily be required to keep track of money
and ensure that it has been transferred to
legitimate parties. In the blockchain, to-
tal strangers can keep an accurate ledger
of records without resort to trusted third-
parties or middlemen.
Major institutions, however, are con-
fronting the threat to their business.
"Before 2015, few major financial in-
stitutions had announced investments
in the sector," the Tapscotts write. "To-
day, Commonwealth Bank of Australia,
Bank of Montreal, Société Générale,
State Street, CIBC, R BC, TD Bank, Mit-
subishi UFJ Financial Group, BNY Mel-
lon, Wells Fargo, Mizuho Bank, Nordea,
ING, UniCredit, Commerzbank, Mac-
quarie, and dozens of others are investing
in [blockchain] technology and wading
into the leadership discussion."
According to the Tapscotts, "financial
titans" are also playing venture capitalist
in this arena. Among those who have made
direct investments in start-ups or incuba-
tors are Goldman Sachs, NYSE, Visa, Bar-
clays, UBS and Citigroup.
In keeping with the times, the Cana-
dian Securities Exchange earlier this year
announced the introduction of a securi-
ties clearing and settlement platform us-
ing blockchain technology. e platform
— an intersection of digital assets with
traditional financial products — will al-
low companies to issue conventional eq-
uity and debt through tokenized securi-
ties. "While the platform is subject to
regulation by securities commissions and
not a full public blockchain, it is expected
to provide real-time clearing and settle-
ment," Druzeta says.
But financial services are just the
tip of the iceberg. "In the near term, the
technology is intuitively applicable to cer-
tain aspects of a wide range of industries,
particularly their supply chains," says Ste-
phens, like his Montreal-based partner
Christian Jacques spends "pretty much 100
per cent of my day" dealing with legal and
business issues arising from the technology.
Blockchain technology has already been
applied to medical records, land registry
holdings, digital identity and even dia-
SOURCE: PWC: MAKING SENSE OF BITCOIN, CRYPTOCURRENCY, AND BLOCKCHAIN
