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58 Ariz. L. Rev. 359 (2016)
Cryptocurrency- Based Law

handle is hein.journals/arz58 and id is 376 raw text is: CRYPTOCURRENCY-BASED LAW Michael Abramowicz* Bitcoin is a protocol promoted as the first peer-to-peer institution-an alternative to a central bank. The decisions made through this protocol, however, involve no judgment. Could a peer-to-peer protocol underpin an institution that makes normative decisions? Indeed, an extension to the Bitcoin protocol could allow a cryptocurrency to make law. Tacit coordination games, in which players compete to identify consensus issue resolutions, would determine currency ownership. For example, an issue might be whether a cryptocurrency-based trust should disburse funds to a putative beneficiary, and the game's outcome would resolve the question and result in gains or losses for coordination game participants. A cryptocurrency can also be used to generate rules or other written codes. Peer-to- peer law might be useful when official decision-makers are corrupt or when agency or transactions costs are high. A modest starting point for cryptocurrency- based governance would be as a replacement for Bitcoin's centralized system for changing its source code. A cryptocurrency incorporating tacit coordination games could serve as a foundation for other projects requiring peer-to-peer governance, ranging from arbitration to business associations, which would enjoy inherent limited liability and would lack designated management. * Professor of Law, George Washington University. I am grateful to David Abrams and Omri Marian for helpful comments and to participants in workshops at Boston College, George Washington University, and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. All errors are my own.

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