Cryptocurrencies and non-fungible token (NFT) news headlines at the moment concentrate on the marketplace crash (from time to time framed as a crypto-winter or cryptoextinction), fraud and the collapse of numerous crypto exchange platforms — or the “wealth” getting designed or lost by way of cryptocurrencies and NFTs. Earlier, in 2021 and the 1st half of 2022, headlines have been focused on the meteoric rise in worth of cryptocurrencies, digital art marketed as NFTs, and platforms and exchanges that facilitated these transactions making use of blockchain technologies. Seeking ahead to 2023 and beyond, additional legislation and regulation, along with the enforcement of current laws and regulations, is inevitable in connection with these economic, investment and otherwise speculative use circumstances relating to cryptocurrencies, NFTs and blockchain technologies.

Even so, the underlying blockchain technologies could be (and is getting) employed for much less headline-grabbing and much more mundane, pragmatic and much less speculative purposes, and these use circumstances ought to not be confused with the use circumstances ordinarily observed in headlines.

What the future holds for cryptocurrencies, NFTs and other related utilizes of blockchain technologies is hotly debated, and several individuals have robust feelings about these developments — specially about the worth of new currencies, NFTs and the like. Even so, regardless of one’s feelings and beliefs in this regard, we believe everybody ought to be conscious that the legal and organization dangers differ tremendously based on the use case of the blockchain technologies. At its core, blockchain technologies is about securely recording and tracking transactions by means of a ledger that can then be employed for several nonspeculative purposes unrelated to cryptocurrencies or digital asset speculation, a number of of which are discussed under.

Option blockchain utilizes

Legal principles to think about

Blockchain is an fascinating, promising and fairly safe technologies, but like most technologies, its use circumstances and how humans use (or abuse) it want to be regarded as when getting into into transactions, contracts or relationships involving the blockchain. Absolutely nothing is completely protected or safe, nor is it cost-free from the human element at some level — such as error, omission or abuse. For instance, individuals may perhaps shed passwords or other credentials or new technologies may perhaps arise, which could raise the prospective for hacking and the circumvention of encryption mechanisms underlying the blockchain.

Time-tested and simple organization, legal and contracting principles ought to be kept in thoughts when thinking about the use of blockchain technologies, such as (1) counterparty and other due diligence and evaluation, (two) legal and regulatory compliance evaluation, and (three) robust and thoughtful contractual provisions and protections primarily based on the nature of the use case and application, such as the allocation of dangers (no matter whether recognized or unknown).

If you are a vendor giving items or solutions incorporating blockchain technologies, affordable and acceptable disclaimers about the technologies and ancillary human components ought to exist in your contracts. Conversely, if you are a client or customer acquiring items or solutions making use of blockchain technologies, be realistic and cautious about the prospective added benefits and guarantee there are acceptable controls, safeguards, treatments and recourse that could be realistically enforced.

Conclusion

Just due to the fact cryptocurrencies and NFTs, which use blockchain technologies, have been in the news grabbing alarming headlines about prospective fraud and enormous economic gains or losses, there are nevertheless other use circumstances and applications of blockchain technologies that, although possibly much less glamorous or newsworthy, may perhaps potentially be much more profound and useful in each day life in the future.