Regulating Blockchain Through Soft Law : The UNIDROIT Digital Assets and Private Law Project

Blockchain is among the disruptive technologies that were a catalyst for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. A type of shared, immutable digital ledger or database, blockchain emerged in the aftermath of the 2007–2008 financial crisis and spurred the development of digital assets such as the Bitcoin cryptocurrency that challenge, and to an extent replace, traditional cross-border payment systems. Both blockchains at large and digital assets in particular have raised a host of legal issues pertaining to their private law status and judicial enforcement. Recognizing that blockchains and digital assets are by nature transnational technologies that pose transnational legal problems escaping state-level confines, scholars such as Marek Dubovec have argued that “[h]armonization of standards at an international level is inherent to the nature and uses of digital assets.” This has led the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) to develop Principles and Commentary on Digital Assets and Private Law to serve as guidelines and best practices, allowing states to harmonize their private law treatment of digital assets. This includes the foundational question of proprietary status, but also transfer, custody, in addition to the use as collateral, and the questions of security rights and private international law