There is little doubt that virtual currencies are here to stay in one form or another, and as means of payment, they invite if not require regulation and standardization to avoid abuse. Stakeholders of virtual currency regulation are companies involved in the blockchain economy, both new...

In the absence to date of any specific pre-emptive federal regulation of blockchain distributed ledger technology in fintech, smart contracts, or other uses, this paper discusses early state legislation including Arizona, California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, New York, Nevada and...

Crowdfunding shows signs of taking over the domain of venture capital as an unregulated, democratic means of innovation finance. Europe has always lagged behind the United States and even Israel in terms of productive startup entrepreneurship and creativity. Even Asia has already overtaken...

OECD and EU have unsuccessfully sought for some decades to rein in what they perceive as “harmful tax competition.” Despite occasional publicity from spectacular (and, in most cases, spectacularly unsuccessful) exemplary enforcement actions, the amount of taxes paid by corporations continues...

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), once hailed as a visionary free-trade project, threatens to disintegrate over massive failures of public diplomacy and a sudden surge of popular resistance against private investment arbitration, at least in the form of Investor-State...

Clearing and settlement of international securities transactions for indirectly held securities presents major challenges as the immense potential of blockchain technology creates the possibility of a tamper-proof consolidated audit trail, of almost infinitesimal transaction cost, and increased...

As the costs of outright, armed confrontation with major opponents such as Russia, China, or even Iran remove most the use of force from the roster of realistic options, economic—and particularly financial—sanctions and measures have gained ground since 9/11. While UN sanctions are...

At first sight, and against certain counterparties, cyber warfare has appeared and proved to be a phenomenally low-cost and low-risk tool of adversarial foreign policy. But while questions increasingly arise about exposure to reciprocal risk to the most heavily digitized knowledge- and...