An understanding of legal issues implicated by blockchain technology is crucial for all lawyers today. The internet is now inextricably intertwined with the practice of law, but there was a time when it was confined to the domain of emerging technology and telecommunications lawyers. Just as the internet developed from being a novel technology to a crucial component of modern life, the technology underpinning "Web 3.0" is poised to do the same. Today, there are more than 1,000 blockchains being used across many industries and businesses. If blockchain has not already impacted your profession, it will. 

Blockchain Basics

At a high level, a blockchain is essentially a decentralized database full of transactions (or records). A group of transactions make up each "block" in the "chain," with the "chain" continuously growing as new blocks are added. It is a type of distributed ledger technology that enables unaffiliated (and potentially unknown to each other) parties to maintain an agreed upon record or state of affairs. Depending on the blockchain, this "consensus" may be achieved by a variety of mechanism programmed into the relevant operating software with each blockchain deploying different governance structures but in all instances, the technology is operated through decentralized computing. This contrasts to a centralized database, where a single party has unilateral authority to add or change records, and can restrict or provide access to the database.