Blog Expert ] is the new series of Cointelegraph articles by the leaders of the cryptographic industry. It covers everything from Blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies to ICO regulation and investment analysis. If you want to become our guest author and be published on Cointelegraph, please send us an email at mike@cointelegraph.com .

After reading about how a partner of one of the largest and most prestigious international law firms was arrested by an officer of the Bureau US Federal Investigations (FBI) for attempting to recover Bitcoins in a corruption deal of a Silicon Valley technology company. to feel sad about the smart contracts that are starting to take over some of the lawyer functions. You could even secretly thank the co-inventor of Ethererum, Vitalik Buterin, for that.

"My life is over"

A quiet Hilton Garden Hill lobby in Cupertino, California, was turned into a crime scene exactly at 9:55:10 on January 31, 2017 when a man shouted "my life is over" while he was handcuffed and arrested by FBI agent William Scanlon. The arrested man used a fake name "Dan" and wore an obvious wig to disguise his identity. Unfortunately, his coverage exploded when the Scanlon, who was working at the FBI's Public Corruption Division, identified him in his report as being Jeffrey Wertkin, a partner of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld who was an ex-US Department of Justice.

Apparently, Wertkin, while still working at the Washington Department of Justice, stole complaints from whistleblowers against a Silicon technology company Valley, which was closed to public view. To give a boost to the tech society in the ongoing government investigation and hamper justice, Wertkin has been trying to sell these secret complaints against the tech company, in exchange for 310 "untraceable" bitcoins. worth $ 310,000.

Wertkin's dreams of becoming an "undetectable" Bitcoin millionaire was broken on November 29, 2017 – when Bitcoin was trading at $ 7,000 – and when he pled guilty to two charges of obstructing justice and a transport chief stole goods across the state lines. DOJ attorneys said they were going to get 30 to 37 months in jail when he would be sentenced on March 14, 2018. The law firm has since dismissed Wertkin

Blockchain to replace the duties.

note that Bitcoins are ill-suited to corrupt transactions. Because, Bitcoin transactions are tracked and made public using Blockchain, which is a digital book distributed over a network of computers rather than one or more servers. Transactions made in Bitcoins are recorded chronologically and publicly. It is almost impossible to modify historical records on a Blockchain and, more importantly, access to a Blockchain can also be restricted.

Buterin explained, "All Blockchain transactions come with verifiable cryptographic evidence tracks, and instead of just hoping that the parties we interact with will behave honorably, we build blockchains that inherently build the properties. in the system, so that they will continue to operate with the guarantees we expect, even if many actors are involved. "

The main disruptive element of the Blockchain in the 39 The current commercial and economic ecosystem is its ability to eliminate the need to trust intermediaries to certify a transaction. This feature allows Ethereum Blockchain to be used to create intelligent contracts

Smart contracts are computer protocols, or algorithms, that allow to check the trading process or the execution of contracts – Since legal relationships can be neatly reduced in the code, the clauses are automatically applied once the preprogrammed conditions are satisfied. These are coded instructions, which run on the occurrence of an event.

"Smart contracts" – can automatically move digital resources, including "contracts" according to arbitrary predefined rules, simply by writing logic

Lawyers realize that smart contract technology will be an irrepressible disruptive force for the profession.

For example, Blockchain's book with inalterability of data, mixed with smart contracts could help customers create an immutable, timestamped and legally defensible record of when a trademark or copyright is first used, so if a customer is pursuing the registration of that mark, the proof would be there to take advantage of the option in its favor.The Blockchain is the perfect mechanism to achieve these goals because the nature records in a Blockchain network are time stamped, secure and scalable.

On January 9, 2017, Kodak, a camera manufacturer, announced the launch of its Cryptocurrency KodakCoin using Blockchain security technology, a digital rights property registry for photographers to record at Both new and archive work that they can then concede within the platform to enable the management of the image rights for photographers. Using the Blockchain for Recording and Tracking Copyright makes sense, the price of action jumped 89%

"With KodakCoin, participating photographers are invited to take part in a new economy for photography.To sell their work immediately after the sale and for professional and amateur photographers, sell their work with confidence on a secure Blockchain platform, "said Kodak. to accredited investors who reach the financial threshold of – $ 200,000 of income or $ 1 million of net worth – from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and other selected countries under a licensing partnership with Wenn Digital. On a separate note, Kodak announced the same day a new line of mining platform rental business called "KashMiner", called "KashMiner" by Bitcoin. KashMiner is invited to consider the US and cross-border tax implications when evaluating the global economy of transactions using new products based on Kodak's virtual currency.

Selva Ozelli Esq., CPA is an international tax attorney and CPA who writes frequently on tax, legal and accounting matters for tax notes, Bloomberg BNA, other publications and the OECD.