Blockchain and the Law: Setting the Floor

Blockchain and the law has over the past years become a field in which a multitude of developments have taken place, and the tendency is for that progress to continue. However, due to the seemingly never-ending stream of publications and ongoing developments in the blockchain and crypto markets, the essence of the topic—concerning the legal effects and consequences of the growing adoption of blockchain based-technologies and their applications such as crypto and smart contracts—risks becoming a little lost. This chapter discusses the problem of blockchain and the law at its most basic and fundamental levels, and in so doing considers the essential traits of blockchain and the essential traits of law, looking into how both are related, and how new developments should be deployed, in a way that is faithful to the technology’s promise and capacity, and to the law’s function as the main tool for social order.