ILTAcon 2018 introduced a new blockchain series - as expected. The new series contains four different sessions - Blockchain 101, real world blockchain example, how to build a blockchain app and the future of blockchain.
The sessions are coordinated by the Global Blockchain Consortium which kicked off on Sunday before ILTA officially started.
One refreshing thing to see at the conference is to see real life applications - whether they are used in actual production environment or whether they are designed as proof of concepts. These real life applications show the audience the potentials of Blockchain technologies and give audience a sense of reality.
It is also great to see legal technologists turning their minds to Blockchain because ... let's face it, who else deals with millions of hash values on a daily basis? Satoshi might very well be a legal technologist.
In general, the following sections were covered at ILTACon 2018.
Smart Contracts
Smart contract is the most recognised Blockchain technology. Quite a few vendors set up their services based on smart contracts offering. Wolters Kluwer demonstrated a proof of concept called "Effact", a self-executing smart contract initiating auto payments upon eSignature. American Express recently acquired ABRA which is a Blockchain tech company offering smart contract services. OpenLaw provides a platform for self-executing smart contracts, too.
Legaler offers a unique service in the smart contract space. Legaler provides a Blockchain platform for contracted service - not any service but pro bono legal service. The idea is to help people without access to justice. Lawyers will be able to offer pro bono legal advice in exchange of tokens.
Some main issues around smart contracts technologies are also mentioned in various sessions:
- Form of payment - most vendors offer payments in cryptocurrencies, which has great volatility. The White Company sees an opportunity in this space and offers its customers a stable, less volatile currency as an alternative; Amercian express currently doesn't offer its own cryptocurrency but it is not to say that it wouldn't do so in the future; Other vendors give their client the option to exchange in US Dollar, but it sort of defeats the purpose of having the transaction in Blockchain.
- Record Keeping - another main advantage of using Blockchain is to keep a record for all the parties. A lot of vendors now offer the flexibility to "fork" another blockchain to handle complicated situations. But forking means the database will grow larger and more complicated and it will present challenges to version control and document management for large databases;
- Legal Documentation - OpenLaw and the BlockDrop offer services such as legal document template for contracts and service agreements in relations to blockchain. Currently the legal documents are tailored for the US jurisdiction but surely the rest of the world will catch up;
- government issued digital currencies - both Thailand and Canada are looking into the Blockchain technologies to evaluate the potentials. Govenment issued digital currencies will be less volatile. It could mean that all currencies will be digital currencies and it could be a lot easier to do foreign currency exchange in the future;
- the standards of hash value - it sounds amazing to input a hash value and to retrieve metadata of a document such as the geo location, user, timestamp, document information, etc. But when you think about connecting two blockchain APIs or migrating data from one blockchain platform to another, you will have to handle different hashing methods. This is one thing that need to be standardised in the new process.
Document Management System
Blockchain makes perfect sense to DMS providers such as iManage and NetDocuments since they alreay handle version control. Integrating blockchain into the existing version control allow DMS providers to extend the service to users outside the DMS.
NetDocuments demonstrated an interesting proof of concept to allow users using NetDocuments to directly share documents with users outside the firm without access to NetDocuments. When a document is attached to an email, a self-executed verification service will verify the hash value with the one in the blockchain and de-crypt the document using a private key. The private key will temporarily decrpt the document to allow users to view the document.
The proof of concept has a lot of potentials to run document managed services and enforce the security without installing the local application. It can potentially be used on mobile devices as currently mobile devices cannot access attachments linked to the internal DMS.
Standardised format
NetDocuments shared a lot of examples of lacking standards in the Blockchain implementation process. Encoding, hashing format, hashing length, field type (string vs binary) are all valid consideration points. A lot of startups (such as OpenLaw and Legaler) are tapping into bigger company environment such as Ethereum and Integra.
IBM and Microsoft have both entered the Blockchain playfield and they could set out certain standards for blockchain.
Australia is one of the leading countries pushing forward the ISO initiative, hoping to set Blockchain standards in the new ISO security requirements.
Concepts such as smart contracts and crypto stock trading have been recognised in law in several US states. Delaware is one of the leading state recognising the legal status of Blockchain as a result of the Delaware initiative.
There is still a long way to go bringing standards to Blockchain. It may take years. But it is not to say that we will not be using the technology in the interim. No doubt that there will be more use cases in the upcoming years. To blockchain users, the most crucial point is to understand your needs and the associated risks and choose your technology wisely.
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