“Under the guidance of scientist and lecturer Dazza Greenwood, the MIT Media Lab has released lawchain.org, a prototype effort for testing whether “blockchain’s immutable record capability can be used for legal requirements” for collecting and distributing records currently met by archivists, Greenwood said. Doing so provides “a copy ledger of the blockchain in every running instance” of user upload, and because it’s a text file, “it’s not that big to have a record of every transaction.”
Many are interested in putting the authoritative versions of statutes and regulations online, “but having an authoritative version requires the ability to demonstrate” that the record was enacted by legislators, Greenwood explained. While websites provided by city, state and federal agencies can provide text copies of the law, the information has no authoritative value, and thus couldn’t be entered as evidence into a case. “It’s just not real. You can’t depend on it.”
To this end, Greenwood’s team hopes to “test a hash or a record of the law” and mandates for upload to a blockchain, which would in theory provide “an archive system that anyone can demonstrate at no cost” that a statute was enacted at a certain time.”
via| Legaltech News http://ow.ly/deZt302sf7f
SmartContracts - Blockchain, AI in Law, and Legaltech Blog (Curated by Lawyers) 