Cryptolaw for Distributed Ledger Technologies: A Jurisprudential Framework
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CRYPTOLAW FOR
DISTRIBUTED LEDGER TECHNOLOGIES:
A JURISPRUDENTIAL FRAMEWORK
Carla L. Reyes*
ABSTRACT: Both governments and private entities increasingly turn to distributed
ledger technologies (DLT) for more efficient and transparent ways to implement admin-
istrative and other processes. When so doing requires grafting legal concepts onto com-
puter code, changes will ripple outward to affect other areas of the law. Treating DLT as
a foreign legal system allows comparative law to illuminate five areas of jurisprudential
disruption from moving legal processes to DLT-based systems: substantive legal
changes, new regulatory actors, legal structure changes, law-lag reduction, and legal cul-
ture changes. This article explores such ripple effects in the context of DLT-based cor-
porate share registries in Delaware. The article argues that, in addition to changes to the
Delaware General Corporation Law, DLT-based share registries may impact corporate
law in other substantive ways, see the rise of new regulator-like entities, and magnify the
shift in corporate culture reflected in the unicorn and platform technology company phe-
nomena.
CITATION: Carla L. Reyes, Cryptolaw for Distributed Ledger Technologies: A
Jurisprudential Framework, 58 JURIMETRICS J. 283-302 (2018).
In July 2017, Delaware Governor John C. Carney Jr. signed into law
amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law that allow corporations
to issue shares through blockchain technologies.I Meanwhile, the governments
of Sweden2 and Cook County, Illinois have investigated the possibility of im-
plementing a real-property recording system through blockchain technology.3
*Carla L. Reyes is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at Stetson University College of Law
and a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.
A substantial portion of this article is derived from an article inthe Nebraska Law Review. See Carla
L. Reyes, Conceptualizing Cryptolaw, 96 NEB. L. REv. 384 (2017).
1. Pete Rizzo, Delaware Governor Signs Blockchain Bill into Law, COINDESK (July 24, 2017,
1:30 PM), https://www.coindesk.com/delaware-governor-signs-blockchain-legislation-law [https://
perma.cc/2DHN-BDYP].
2. Pete Rizzo, Sweden Tests Blockchain Smart Contractsfor LandRegistry, COINDESK (June 16,
2016, 3:55 PM), http://www.coindesk.com/sweden-blockchain-smart-contracts-land-registry [https:
//perma.cc/2Z9K-RWLK].
3. JOHN MIRKOVIC, COOK CTY. RECORDER OF DEEDS, BLOCKCHAIN PILOT PROGRAM: FINAL
REPORT 21-22 (2017), http://cookrecorder.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Final-Report-CCRD-
Blockchain-Pilot-Program-for-web.pdf [https://perma.cc/KG77-S8WK]; Rizzo, supra note 2.
SPRING 2018
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Cryptolaw for Distributed Ledger Technologies: A Jurisprudential Framework
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