Blockchain-Concept Credit: Sashkin/Shutterstock.com

A panel of experts at the Association of Corporate Counsel's annual meeting at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas, said on Tuesday that blockchain and smart contracts can be used for more than just cryptocurrency. However the additional use of blockchain technology may create additional legal issues to consider.

Sean Murphy, a partner in the U.K. office of Norton Rose Fulbright and the leader of the firm's global fintech practice, said the possibilities are nearly endless. He said one of his clients is looking to leverage the blockchain to monitor their supply chain.

“One of my clients is a miner of a valuable commodity and one of the things they would love to be able to offer to consumers is the assurance that mine that this commodity came out of is not a mine that has ethical issues; that there isn't child slavery issues involved in that mine,” Murphy said.

The use of blockchain to track products in the supply chain has recently been pioneered by the retail sector. Following a two-year pilot program, Walmart announced the use of blockchain to track its lettuce to determine if it has salmonella.

Gregory Landua, the co-founder and CEO of Regen Network, said that Walmart's use of blockchain in this way ultimately saves the company money.

“Their upside is really making recalls of products. If you have a salmonella outbreak in lettuce and you know exactly the lettuce which is defective, it reduces their costs in the recall and reduces their liability too,” Landua explained. “There upside is on the risk mitigation side.”

However, Murphy explained that one of the issues that comes up is how the physical commodity is linked to the digital blockchain. “The solution will vary from product to product,” Murphy said.

Scott Kearns, senior legal director at Dell Technologies, said there are still unanswered questions of how to litigate blockchain and smart contract issues and disputes.

“We talked a lot about smart contracts and smart contracts are really code,” Kearns explained. “If you have to litigate something related to a blockchain, how are you going to actually do that? Are you going to have a coder come in to explain to the judge what was written?”

The panel was moderated by Andrew Lom, a partner at Norton Rose Fulbright.