John E. Ottaviani co-moderated a roundtable panel on “Blockchain Technology and ‘Smart Contracts’: Understanding Opportunities and Challenges” at the American Bar Association’s 2018 Cyberspace Institute. The discussion explored concepts, legal challenges, and innovative opportunities associated with blockchain technology and smart contracts in the context of two significant use cases: the digital asset exchange and self-sovereign identity. Privacy and identity issues, custodianship of digital assets and private keys, unintended consequences, security issues and compliance with legal regulation by agencies such as the OCC, SEC, CFTC and IRS were discussed. The group also reviewed, inversely, the ways that regulatory agencies are using blockchain technology to enhance enforcement and implementation of regimes under their purview.
