Blockchain and Cryptocurrency: International Legal and Regulatory Challenges

Dedications
About the authors
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
1 Introduction
	The Internet of Things
		Blockchain
		Cryptocurrency
		Smart contracts
		Decentralised autonomous organisations
		Global regulation
		Initial coin offerings
		Natural resources industry
		General Data Protection Regulation
		The Metaverse
2 What are blockchain and cryptocurrency?
	Blockchain
		Introduction
		Characteristics of DLT
		Cryptocurrency
		Introduction
3 Regulatory and legal challenges
	Regulatory challenges
		Cryptoassets
		Regulation of crypto-assets
		Regulation of DLT
		Legal challenges
		Criminal
		Money laundering
		Data privacy/protection
		Does a user’s public key constitute ‘personal data’?
		Ownership of IP of information contained in the blockchain
		What is the legal status of decentralised autonomous  organisations?
		Is the data on the blockchain ‘property’ for the purposes of the Law of Property Act 1925?
		Jurisdictional issues
		What is the effect of this?
		Contracts
		Smart contracts – what are they?
		Who are the parties to a ‘smart contract’?
		What are the benefits of a ‘smart contract’?
		What are the ingredients for a ‘smart contract’?
		Is a ‘smart contract’ sufficient to govern a contractual relationship on its own?
		Where does the liability fall under a ‘smart contract’?
4 Global regulation: UK and EU Member States
	Softly, softly, catchee monkey
		Choice of jurisdiction
		Declaration for European Blockchain Partnership
		The EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum
		Regulation and treatment in the UK
		What are the requirements of being an authorised person?
		How is currency regulated across the EU?
		MiFID II controversies
		Regulation in other European jurisdictions (case studies)
		Estonia
		France
		Malta
		Jersey
		Tax considerations
5 Global regulation: North America
	Canada
		Mexico
		United States
		Licensing
		Money transmission laws
		Regulatory guidance
6 Global regulation: the rest of the world
	Introduction
		Divergent philosophies on cryptocurrency and blockchain regulation
		China
		Gibraltar
		Hong Kong
		India
		Israel
		Japan
		Kazakhstan, Belarus and Estonia
		Kyrgyz Republic
		South Korea
		Russia
		Switzerland
7 Initial coin offerings
	Introduction
		What is an ICO?
		What is the regulatory picture in the United States?
		When is an ICO an investment contract? The ‘Howey Test’
		ICOs and the Howey Test
		Investment companies
		What is the regulatory position in the UK?
		How will ICOs be regulated in the UK?
		Restrictions of marketing an ICO which is a CIS or an AIF
		E-Money Tokens
		Unregulated Tokens
		Facilitating Regulated Payment Systems
		The limited approach of the European Union
		Current EU provisions
		The Chinese case study of prohibition
8 The Internet of Things
	Introduction
		What is the IoT?
		Security problems with the IoT
		How does a director mitigate this security concern?
		Who owns the data collected through the IoT?
		UK regulation of the IoT
		EU regulation of the IoT
		How does GDPR apply to the IoT?
		Will the ePrivacy Regulation apply to the IoT?
		What is the Cybersecurity Certification Framework?
		Why does the Network Infrastructure Security Directive (‘NISD’) not apply to the IoT?
		US regulation of the IoT
		Voluntary guidance in the US
		So who owns the data?
9. Right to be forgotten and right to erasure
	Introduction
		Right to erasure
		Right to be forgotten
		Fundamental issues with right to erasure/right to be forgotten and their enforcement
		Methods of data protection and data privacy
		What are the effects on compliance if data is pseudonymised?
		The right to amendment
		Other DLTs and GDPR compliance
10. Environmental (Natural resources), Social, and Governance Metrics
	Introduction
		Regulatory reform
		What is the key regulatory question?
		What other regulatory issues need to be addressed?
		Decentralisation
		Areas of application
		Non-renewables and intermediaries
		Renewables and electricity
		The reality
		Digitisation
		Information storage, transparency and real-time tracking
		Distributed technology and the energy market
		Obstacles for blockchain in the natural resources industry and energy sector
		Blockchain as a disruptive technology
		Legal issues
		Current regulation
		Strong and weak smart contracts
		Data privacy
		Public or private
		Security implications for nodal location and access
		Moving forward
11. Decentralised autonomous organisations: regulation and liability
	Understanding decentralised autonomous organisations
		The legal status and other issues around DAOs
		Risks
12. The Metaverse
	The Metaverse’s Regulatory Framework
		Contract
		Intellectual Property
		Trademarks
		Copyrights
		Patents
		Regulation of behaviour
		The jurisdictional issue
		Appendix 1 General Data Protection Regulation
		Appendix 2 Cryptoassets Taskforce: final report (October 2018)
		Appendix 3 Cryptocurrencies and blockchain – Legal context and implications for financial crime, money laundering and tax evasion (European Parliament, July 2018)
		Index