Page 6 - Phoenix Vol 11 No 2

DAVE KINSEY | Technology
What Do Lawyers, Lawmakers and Journalists Need to Know About Blockchain?
AsI write this article, in mid- January 2019, the U.S. gov- ernment is in the midst of its longest shut down in history. e impact is substantial, though the fed- eral government is still largely opera- tional. Soldiers are still at their post, law enforcement is still running, and
many other functions still exist.
BUILDING A CRYPTO-WORLD
However, some visionaries are hop- ing that the technology behind Bit- coin may someday completely shutter all governments on earth forever. e Crypto-Anarchist community called the Cypherpunks created Blockchain as a means of facilitating private, un- traceable transactions between anon- ymous parties. e dream is to make governments impotent and obsolete by creating a hidden corner of cyber- space that exists beyond the visibility and reach of governments and law en- forcement. e hope is also that law- yers, judges, and courts will eventual- ly be replaced with something called smart contracts (computer code on a blockchain). e anarchists hope that smart contracts and something called distributed autonomous organiza- tions (DAOs) may provide a certain degree of order in a post-government, crypto-anarchist world.
Later, a “less anarchistic” version of the technology, called permissioned Blockchain, was created and adopted by IBM and other companies. e jury is still out on if this will be a vi- able technology in the long-run. Ad- vocates for both types of Blockchain have big plans to change the world. Hardcore visions of normal Block- chain advocates (not the watered- down permissioned version) are truly
breathtaking.
It is important
to realize that the Blockchain tech- nology story is generally being told by people who are sold on the technology, o en
without fully understanding it. Ad- ditionally, because almost nobody understands the technology, these stories are being recycled, spreading misinformation on a massive scale. is has allowed advocates of the technology to encourage state legis- lators across the country to demon- strate that they are forward-thinking and pro-business by hastily passing pro-Blockchain laws that they openly admit they do not even understand.
LAWS VERSUS TECHNOLOGICAL REALITY
In Arizona, the Blockchain law ap- proved in 2018 appears to o er very lo y assurances of Blockchain func- tionality. Within what is supposed to be a legal description, Arizona Revised Statutes (A.R.S.) § 44-7061 states that “ e data on the [Block- chain] ledger is protected with cryp- tography, is immutable and auditable and provides an uncensored truth.” In reality, Blockchain does not assure immutability, auditability, or provide an uncensored truth. e technology does not even match its own legal de- scription. Additionally, the claim that the data on the ledger is protected with cryptography is extremely broad and imprecise to the point of being meaningless at best, misleading at worst.
While many states appear to be blindly endorsing the technology designed to destroy all governments, not all of them are. Tamara Chuang of e Colorado Sun wrote in January 2019, “In one of the more dramatic endings during the last legislative ses- sion, a bill aimed at putting Colorado at the forefront of blockchain policy passed by a single vote. But, moments later, it failed a er some lawmakers changed their minds.”
While there is substantial confu- sion everywhere, there are also some voices of reason testifying to the U.S. Congress. One such considered opin- ion has been provided by economist Nouriel Roubini. In testimony pre- sented to the U.S. Senate Commit-
tee on Banking last October, Rou- bini indicated that blockchain is the most “over-hyped — and least use- ful — technology in human history.” He also commented that “Crypto is the mother or father of all scams and bubbles.” ere is substantial truth in Roubini’s comments, though the full story is much larger and more trou- bling than even these scathing re- marks would imply.
DECRYPTING THE TRUTH
In my new book, I present the fas- cinating history of the technology, clearly explaining how it works along the way. Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks and author of the 2012 book Cypherpunks, is also featured. Wikileaks released emails obtained from a hack of the Democratic Na- tional Party, altering the course of the 2016 U.S. presidential election and setting in motion a series of events that led to the appointment of a Spe- cial Counsel to investigate a sitting president of the United States.
ere are even some ties between the Blockchain story and the last U.S. presidential election. My book high- lights evidence suggesting that at least one Russian Cypherpunk was in- volved in the development of Bitcoin as early as March 2006. e Block- chain Code helps expose some hid- den background information relevant to the ongoing Mueller investigation and the associated political circus.
e Blockchain Code: Decrypt the Jungle of Complexity to Win the Crypto-Anarchy Game is available for purchase in paperback and Kindle on Amazon.
All citizens, not just lawyers, law- makers, and journalists should be aware of what is going on, but these citizens have a particularly strong duty to pay attention to these devel- opments. Please consider reading e Blockchain Code. ank you.
Dave Kinsey is the president and owner of Total Networks, the technology adviser to Arizona’s law rms. Mr. Kinsey is on the technology committee for the State Bar of Arizona, has presented at several CLE seminars on the topics of technology security and data protection, and his team is the rst and only Arizona IT company to earn the CompTIA Security Trustmark, certifying that Total Networks meets or exceeds security best practices.
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