From Bitcoin to Smart Contracts: Legal Revolution or Evolution from the Perspective of de lege ferenda?
Bitcoin has raised many debates dealing with fundamental issues of decentralised law and virtual currencies. Is it money? Is it payment system? Is it bilateral agreement or just a computer game? Regulatory bodies have decided not to act and see what risks emerge. In areas important to governments—i.e. taxation and anti-money laundering—initial regulatory approaches already emerge. Contract law and P2P relations are, however, not addressed. As so-called Bitcoin 2.0. or “smart contracts” are dealing much with P2P relations and rock the fundamentals of contract law, the law seems to be not able to address these new appearances. This article discusses nature of Bitcoin, de lege lata and de lege ferenda regulatory developments in this area and some fundamental regulatory problems emerging with smart contracts as Bitcoin 2.0.