For this week’s episode, we are joined by Olivier Rikken,  Director of blockchain and smart contracts at Axveco– a consultancy firm based out of the Netherlands focusing on sustainable innovation. Olivier last spoke to us in April regarding smart contracts – this episode focuses on the legal aspects of blockchain and smart contracts.

Since April last year, Olivier has been involved in a wide range of blockchain related projects which include being part of the ISO World Standards working group on smart contracts. In addition to his role as a start-up coach for blockchain-enabled start-ups within and outside the Netherlands, Olivier is part of the governance group for the Dutch Blockchain Coalition and is a guest lecturer at three universities in the Netherlands.

 

Blockchain in two minutes

According to Olivier, blockchain is a decentralised database – a shared administration system where everyone who wishes to join may do so and participate (reading, writing and validating content.) There is no need for a trusted 3rdparty to monitor the database.

 

Publication of the “Legal Aspects of Blockchain”

Olivier has recently co-authored a book titled ‘Legal Aspects of Blockchain’ – this book was a product of a collaboration between the Dutch government and the UNOPS (United Nations Office for Project Services.)

Olivier was involved in a working group that published a report on the legality of smart contracts in December 2017. This report drew the attention of the UN and Olivier was subsequently approached with a proposition to co-author a book on smart contracts together with experts from institutions such as MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore), MIT amongst others.

 

A powerful opening

“The fourth Industrial Revolution is underway and organizations in the public domain on both national and international front are being confronted with numerous new technologies” – Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Netherlands.

Olivier explains that in the past few years, we have witnessed several technological developments that could potentially disrupt industries as we know them today. An industrial revolution is characterized by a change in the way things are organized and work is carried out.

For example, decentralisation (through blockchain and DLT) can allow us to design new ecosystems and processes – advances in blockchain combined with developments in big data analytics, artificial intelligence and IoT indicate that we may be on the brink of major changes.

 

Looking at blockchain from a regulatory angle

Olivier believes that prior to forming regulations on a new technology, it is extremely important for law-makers, politicians and lawyers to understand the technology and its implications. Using the example of GDPR and blockchain – he highlights that there is a lot of concern regarding GDPR compliance issues with blockchain. However, as he points out, there isn’t a single version of blockchain (public v/s private, permissioned v/s permission-less etc.)

Formulating regulations concerning blockchains is particularly challenging– though regulations tend to be as general as possible – it is extremely important for regulators to address different types of blockchain to promote...