The technology has fast become attractive beyond the world of fintech. More use cases seem to emerge on an almost daily basis. Since distributed ledger technology creates a secure, time-stamped and immutable chain of information, it is already finding applications in brand protection and enforcement, marketing and consumer engagement. While the traditional concept of blockchain is an open and anonymous network, there are also “private” blockchains which pre-screen who is allowed to administer the ledger.
For this reason it is seen as “near unhackable,” because to change any of the information on it, a cyber-attack would have to strike (nearly) all copies of the ledger simultaneously. In other words, transactions are verified and validated by the multiple computers that host the blockchain.
Once the block is verified, it is added to the ledger or chain.įrom the perspective of information, the real innovation of distributed ledger technology is that it ensures the integrity of the ledger by crowdsourcing oversight and removes the need for a central authority. Each transaction or “block” is transmitted to all the participants in the network and must be verified by each participant “node” solving a complex mathematical puzzle. Blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies create a trustworthy and transparent record by allowing multiple parties to a transaction to verify what will be entered onto a ledger in advance without any single party having the ability to change any ledger entries later on. In its basic form it is an open ledger of information that can be used to record and track transactions, and which is exchanged and verified on a peer-to-peer network.
What is blockchain?īlockchain technology has become famous as the technology behind cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. But how might these technologies be used in the context of intellectual property (IP) law and practice? Blockchain and related distributed ledger technologies are a hot topic, with new use cases emerging almost every day (photo: Rick_Jo / iStock / Getty Images Plus). Blockchain and IP Law: A Match made in Crypto Heaven?īy Birgit Clark, Baker McKenzie, London, United Kingdomīlockchain and related distributed ledger technologies have been a hot topic recently, with multiple industries exploring their possibilities and new blockchain use cases emerging almost every day.
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