Notes: Our second reading on blockchains. This one may be doubly trick, because it involves both technical complexity and also bankruptcy law, which is notoriously dense. Do your best; we will discuss how well Levitin does at explaining both the technology and the law.
Questions:
What is a cryptocurrency? A cryptocurrency wallet? A cryptocurrency exchange?
What happens if a grocery store goes bankrupt? A bank?
What goes wrong, according to Levitin, when we try to map cryptocurrency exchanges onto this existing bankruptcy system?
Critique the following argument: “Crypto is just gambling anyway; you shouldn’t invest in it unless you’re prepared to lose all your money.”
What would Levitin say a properly investor-protective regulatory regime for cryptocurrency exchanges should look like? How likely are we to get it?