While blockchain becomes a bigger and bigger factor in the legal world, it’s time the profession considers just what to do with the technology’s first killer application: cryptocurrency.
Most of us don’t use Bitcoin or Ethereum and watch the reports of wild market fluctuations with more bemusement than alarm. And while watching stupid people lose money in a fake market may be fun, cryptocurrency isn’t an innocent trifle. Rural towns are being taken over by powerful interests hellbent on draining localities of every ounce of electricity and Iceland may run out of energy completely chasing cryptos. Surprisingly, when a bunch of paranoid libertarians get together to invent fake gold, they don’t care about the social or environmental impacts of what they’re doing.
It’s also a largely unregulated phenomenon that raises a bevy of legal questions. Not the least of which is the “P” question: are cryptos like Bitcoin a giant Ponzi scheme with the miners functioning as the operators?
Over at the Ponzi Scheme Blog, Kathy Bazoian Phelps prepared a quiz to find out what her readers think of cryptos and the regulatory options for the future. Since it intrigues me, we’re going to piggy-back on this quiz and see what you all think as well. Each question is linked below:
- Is Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme?
- Do you think cryptocurrency is a commodity, security or currency?
- Should cryptocurrency be regulated by the SEC, CFTC, or some other agency?
- Have you or will you invest in cryptocurrency?
- Would you use cryptocurrency to actually buy something or only as an investment?
Take the quiz. I’ve put 50 JoeCoin on the outcome.
Joe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.
