Dec 21, 2021
Threshold Signatures, Blockchain Law & NFTs
The patent featured in the above article by nChain is going to become extremely important over the next decade. One thing I’ve watched over the last decade is the patent war happening at an enterprise level.
Once the dust settles within the crypto ecosystem, the ones that will “last” (for mass adoption) will be the ones who have done the appropriate work from a legal standpoint.
If you look into blockchains, it’s all about digital time-stamping. Essentially, a better and more reliable way to prove “receipts” of things. And if all data can be paid for by individuals through micro-payments, then all data exchanges become receipts + digital goods simultaneously (hence why you’ll hear some now saying that, in the future, all things will be NFTs).
These folks are correct (re:NFTs), but the technology underpinning that will be based on the most lawful.
Why lawful?
Because blockchain is all about improving truth via proof. The metaverse cannot, and should not, supersede centuries of law evolution. So anyone currently in the space looking to upend this is going to experience a lot of pain, or be pushed to dealing solely with the Dark Web or black markets. This applies to blockchains seeking to anonymize (e.g. privacy coins and coin mixers). You can see this with groups like the SEC starting to catch-up and enforce their nation-based jurisdictions in the digital realm.
Some think that we should forego all boundaries, but it’s one of the few things that help keep us grounded in the offline world (esp. with mixed reality technologies).
