Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and Smart Contracts

Overview

The introduction of the Internet in the early 1990’s fundamentally changed how the private sector and, more recently, the public sector carry on their day-to-day business.

Now, with the more recent development and application of Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and Smart Contracts, the Internet is becoming a truly revolutionary platform for all sorts of business processes including not only communication and related data management and documentation challenges, but also product and services marketing, payment processing and, most importantly, value attribution and exchange.

Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and Smart Contracts are almost certain to impact almost every form of modern business, including those in financial services and banking, the production of digital creative content and online retailing and distribution of virtually everything.

It will also transform how companies interact with their stakeholders and how governments deal not only with their citizens, but also with each other. Huge issues of data security and digital file administration are at play.

Just as the technology is emerging in fits, starts and the occasional false step, the law is struggling to keep up with the proliferation of possibilities that Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and Smart Contracts present.

Today, the law and regulation governing securities, telecommunications, currency and consumer protection, to name a few, are all being carefully reviewed, both within national jurisdictions and through global and/or multi-jurisdictional agencies, with a view to reform and revision.

Miller Thomson is prepared for both the turmoil and the opportunity that Blockchain has unleashed, not just in the wild and woolly world of crypto-currencies and ICOs, but also for the wider universe of ledger-enabled business process solutions that are now beginning to appear.

From start-ups and emerging companies to the angel investors and venture capitalists who back them, right through to the established data-dependent and data-exchange driven operations in banking and finance, entertainment, transportation/logistics and large industrial operations, especially those that use the Internet of Things where Blockchain technology solves big problems, Miller Thomson is equipped to advise.

Whether the client is large or small and whether Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and Smart Contracts are central or peripheral to its future success, our team at Miller Thomson has acquired the practical expertise and depth to provide valuable insight and real-time guidance about what is happening around the world, what the law currently or potentially permits and prohibits in Canada, how inherent risks of a proposed business idea can be reduced or eliminated and, most importantly, how transactions rooted in Blockchain technology need to be appropriately and accurately documented.

Because Miller Thomson is a national full-service law firm, our Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and Smart Contracts team is able to deal with a range of legal issues including:

  • Capital markets and securities
  • Cybersecurity
  • Financial services
  • Intellectual property
  • Litigation and dispute resolution
  • Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Private equity
  • Tax
  • Entertainment

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Innovation in the Legal Industry

Miller Thomson is proud to be a founding member of the Global Legal Blockchain Consortium (GLBC). The GLBC’s mission is to, “organize and align the stakeholders in the global legal industry with regard to the use of blockchain technology…”

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