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The much-debated Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) Regulation is expected to enter into force in early 2023. MiCA is intended to close gaps in existing EU financial services legislation by establishing a harmonized set of rules for crypto-assets and related activities and services. Among other things, MiCA imposes restrictions on the issuance and use of stablecoins.  It’s part of a broader digital finance package, which, inter alia, also includes the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) and the DLT Pilot Regime Regulation (which itself will start applying on March 23, 2023).…

Continue Reading EU Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation Enters into Force Soon

Tokenization is the process of taking real-world assets and having them represented by digital tokens that can be traded on a blockchain. Tokenization can be a valuable tool for automating business processes and facilitating investment in fractional portions of an asset. However, the success of any tokenization project depends on the laws applicable to the asset being tokenized and the terms and conditions governing the project. Contrary to what some might think, rights in the asset represented by a token do not generally transfer to a buyer on the sale of the token.…

Continue Reading Tokenization, Ownership and Intellectual Property Rights

In today’s interconnected, “always-on” environment, it is easy to forget how dependent we all are on records and, more importantly, on the people we trust to make these records correctly and to hold them securely. One solution has been the “trusted third party,” who maintains a single ledger for a group. Blockchain is another solution. From a legal perspective, there are challenges with both the blockchain technology and the idea of adopting smart contracts. Mayer Brown partner Oliver Yaros shares his insights as part of our Tech Talks video series.
Continue Reading Mayer Brown’s Tech Talks: Blockchain’s Possibilities for Contracting

On 1 November 2018, Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (“SFC”) issued a statement and circular that expanded its regulatory reach over virtual asset activities. Previously, the SFC’s position was that any activities related to virtual assets (e.g. cryptocurrencies, assetbacked tokens, virtual commodities, etc.) would only be subject to the Securities and Futures Ordinance (Cap. 571) if…
Continue Reading Hong Kong: Tightening the Reins on Cryptocurrency

On 25 May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union entered into force, accompanied by some uncertainties regarding its application. For example, some legal commentators believe there are “irreconcilable” differences between blockchain technologies and some of GDPR’s core principles, raising doubts as to whether the technology can achieve widespread adoption under the new data protection regime. …
Continue Reading GDPR Implications for Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies

In April 2018, Amazon Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of e-commerce giant Amazon, was granted a patent relating to a “technology for a streaming data marketplace” by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The technology underlying the patent is described as gathering (online) data streams from various sources and enhancing those streams “by correlating the raw data with additional data.” The patent description lists a number of potential use cases for the streaming data feeds that participants in the market place are offering subscriptions to. One notable use case relates to “bitcoin transactions,” with the ultimate goal of identifying users of the virtual currency by their Bitcoin addresses.
Continue Reading The Bitcoin Implications of Amazon’s New Streaming Data Patent

An increasing number of financial institutions and fintech companies are coming together to create consortia or shared utility service providers that will identify, design, build and provide emerging technologies like blockchain and the possibility of using decentralized, distributed ledger technology that can be accessed and used by market participants to record information.
Continue Reading Challenges with the Evolution of Blockchain

Generally speaking, a Blockchain is a peer-to-peer operated distributed digital ledger that records all transactions executed for a particular asset. The ledger is “distributed” because each user of the network has its own copy of the blockchain, and each user’s copy is updated with new information simultaneously. The greatest benefit of distributed ledger applications, in comparison to conventional financial networks, is that exchanges of a particular asset can be verified, monitored and enforced without the presence of a trusted third party or a central institution.
Continue Reading Blockchain-Based Applications – Evolving Legal Issues

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On 19 October 2015, Amazon filed a patent application for a process that would allow its customers to authenticate purchases with a selfie-photograph rather than a password. The application (Pub. No.:US 2016/0071111 A1) concerns a computer-implemented payment method using selfies in a two-step authentication: In the first step, buyers send a selfie to establish their identity. In the second step, they send another photo or video in which they blink, nod or open or close their mouth to confirm that an actual human being is attempting to be authenticated.
Continue Reading Amazon Wants to Patent “Pay by Selfie” Technology

In banking, open data, a common pool of customer data that can be freely used and redistributed by anyone, could provide a number of benefits to customers and could increase competition in banking in the UK as well as in other jurisdictions. For example, open data could be used to improve the ability to make effective decisions about the use and management of money, or enable comparison applications to make more detailed and accurate assessments of how customers can save money.
Continue Reading The Development of Data Sharing and Open Data in Banking