Blockchain Legal Resource

2023 was a year filled with remarkable AI-related legal developments in legislation, litigation, and regulation. Recent headlines indicate that 2024 will be noteworthy as well. In our AI and Emerging Technologies Year in Review, we take a look at what happened over the past year and predict how key AI issues and trends in the law will continue to progress.

Read the 2023 Year in Review

As we begin the new year and reflect on what we learned last year, the Hunton Andrews Kurth Blockchain team would like to provide you with a recap of the top posts we shared throughout 2023. Please visit the links below for these highlights.

On December 12, 2023, the Centre for Information Policy Leadership at Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP (“CIPL”) released a white paper on Privacy-Enhancing and Privacy-Preserving Technologies: Understanding the Role of PETs and PPTs in the Digital Age.

Welcome to the inaugural edition of Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP’s AI and Emerging Technologies Newsletter, a resource focused on multidisciplinary, current topics affecting businesses in the industry. Inside, we cover a bit of what you need to know about AI in the context of contract terms and conditions, US privacy laws, insurance, employer use monitoring and workforce management, and copyright law, as well as the rise in crypto class actions. Please do not hesitate to reach out to the authors or others in our AI and Emerging Technologies practice with questions regarding these ...

On October 30, 2023, the G7 leaders announced they had reached agreement on a set of International Guiding Principles on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and a voluntary Code of Conduct for AI developers, pursuant to the Hiroshima AI Process. The Hiroshima AI Process was established at the G7 Summit in May 2023 to promote guardrails for advanced AI systems at a global level.

As we begin the new year and reflect on what we learned last year, the Hunton Andrews Kurth Blockchain team would like to provide you with a recap of the top posts we shared throughout 2022. Please visit the links below for these highlights.

Our goal is to continue to provide our readers with relevant, real-time information on legal and regulatory developments in the blockchain space. If you would like to receive email alerts when new posts are published to this blog, please enter your email address in the 'Subscribe' field. Thank you for your readership!

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are creating new economic opportunities in old, familiar spaces. To capitalize on the current popularity of NFTs, some retailers are turning to the timeless art of nostalgia: reworking old media or products into an NFT collection to advertise a brand in an online space or bring new attention (and customers) to a vintage product.

The Hunton Andrews Kurth Blockchain team would like to provide you with an update on legal developments in the world of blockchain technology, as posted on this blog. If you wish to receive email alerts when new posts are published, please enter your email address in the subscribe field.

On March 9, 2020, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) introduced H.R. 6154, the Crypto-Currency Act of 2020.  The bill is the latest effort to provide federal oversight to the burgeoning market for crypto-assets.

As we previously reported, the US Treasury Department recently announced its 2020 National Strategy for Combating Terrorist and Other Illicit Financing (the 2020 Strategy). The 2020 Strategy identifies the US government’s top anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) priorities and serves as a roadmap of Treasury’s plan to stay ahead of evolving illicit finance threats. Additionally, the 2020 Strategy provides private sector financial institutions a window into upcoming legislative efforts and enforcement trends, which should in turn inform compliance efforts through the coming years. Digital assets feature heavily in the 2020 Strategy.

At the conclusion of its February meeting in Riyadh, the Group of Twenty (G20) Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors issued a communiqué discussing a wide range of topics, including digital assets and stablecoins. The G20 reiterated its view that technological innovations can deliver significant benefits to the financial system and the broader economy. It remains vigilant to potential risks arising from financial innovations, including those risks related to financial stability, consumer and investor protection, anti-money laundering and countering the financing ...

As recently reported on the Hunton Privacy & Information Security Law Blog, the European Commission released a suite of documents including its White Paper on Artificial Intelligence and two communications—its European strategy for data and a Digital Strategy document.

The materials note that decentralized digital technologies such as blockchain offer a further possibility for both individuals and companies to manage data flows and usage, based on individual free choice and self-determination. Such technologies will make dynamic data portability in real time possible ...

In 2019, Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP’s structured finance and securitization team closed a number of substantial transactions, developed novel structures for our clients and advised on important tax, regulatory and other industry developments, including emerging uses of blockchain solutions.

In a television interview on November 19, 2019, CFTC Chairman Heath Tarbert discussed digital assets and the importance of U.S. leadership in this space. Notably, he stated:

“I want the United States to lead, particularly in the blockchain technology that underlies digital assets… [U]ltimately I could see it overtaking the internet or being effectively parallel to the internet in using a variety of different kinds of transactions, not just the financial system, but in other types of transactions as well… I think whoever ends up leading in this technology will end up writing ...

A recent speech by Fed Governor Lael Brainard entitled “Digital Currencies, Stablecoins, and the Evolving Payments Landscape” discusses a number of topics of interest to the crypto community, including the development of stablecoins and their potential impact on the global payments system. In particular, Governor Brainard opined that the widespread adoption of stablecoins could have implications for the role of central banks and monetary policy.

On September 19, 2019, the House of Representatives by voice vote approved H.R. 2613, a bipartisan bill entitled the “Advancing Innovation to Assist Law Enforcement Act.” The bill instructs the director of FinCEN to study and prepare a report to Congress on emerging technologies, including blockchain, in an effort to combat money laundering and other forms of illicit finance. Though somewhat modest in scope, the bill is among the first to be approved by one of the chambers of Congress on the topic of blockchain.

Effective September 1, 2019, lawmakers in Texas passed legislation clarifying the ability of businesses organized under Texas law to incorporate blockchain technology into their entity recordkeeping and communications. In doing so, Texas joins the ranks of several other states that have similarly amended their corporate formation statutes.

Nevada is the latest state to adopt statutory amendments accommodating blockchain. In the first two weeks of June, Nevada enacted the following new laws:

• SB161 – The act creates a regulatory sandbox in the Department of Business and Industry for any use of a new or emerging technology, or any novel use of an existing technology, to address a problem, provide a benefit or otherwise offer or provide a financial product or service that is determined by the Director of the Department not to be widely available in Nevada. The act is effective June 13, 2019 for the purpose of adopting any regulations and performing any other preparatory administrative tasks necessary to carry out the provisions of the act, and on January 1, 2020, for all other purposes.

As reported on the Privacy & Information Security Law Blog on January 31, 2019, Hunton Andrews Kurth celebrates the 10-year anniversary of our award-winning Privacy and Information Security Law Blog. Download a copy of “Ten Years Strong: A Decade of Privacy and Cybersecurity Insights.”

As published on the Hunton Privacy and Information Security Law blog, on June 27, 2018, the Ministry of Public Security of the People’s Republic of China published the Draft Regulations on the Classified Protection of Cybersecurity (网络安全等级保护条例（征求意见稿）) (“Draft Regulation”) and is seeking comments from the public by July 27, 2018.