Blockchain technology and corporate governance : the issue of smart contracts — current perspectives and evolving concerns (original) (raw)

On Smart Contracts and Organisational Performance: A Review of Smart Contracts through the Blockchain Technology

Review of Economic and Business Studies

As the Blockchain technology is gaining momentum in popular culture through Cryptocurrencies, its full implication and application to businesses, on a concrete and factual level, is still seen to be in its infancy stage. While the technology provides numerous advantages regarding stability, trust, speed and others, the robustness of the technology is not widely disseminated. This is further coupled by the common notion of resistance to change in business management processes. This paper explores the concept of Smart Contracts through the blockchain technology and its relevance to the business sector and further outlines the advantages and limitations of its applicability as of date.

Blockchain and Smart Contracts: Legal Issues and Regulatory Responses Between Public and Private Economic Law

R. De Caria, 2020

The article investigates some of the most relevant legal issues that emerge in connection with blockchain technology and smart contracts by addressing them from a public policy perspective. In particular, it focuses on some under-investigated problems connected to some possible legal hurdles to their widespread adoption in the legal practice of business at the national and international levels. The legal analysis of blockchain and smart contracts is then employed to explore the more general question of how much the law needs to change in order to accommodate new technologies, or how much it is instead preferable to believe that the existing law is already capable of accommodating innovation, however radical it may be.

Blockchain technology and smart contracts from a financial law perspective

2018

Through extensive study of literature, this Master’s dissertation aims to identify the opportunities created by the advent of first and second generation distributed ledger technology in the context of the financial sector. It also assesses the regulatability of various distributed ledger configurations, and their relation to the pre-existing legal framework. Finally, it identifies a number of priorities for suggested future law changes. Our research leads to a categorization of possible distributed ledger technology applications, based on a varying degree of decentralization: from highly decentralized native crypto-asset blockchains to permissioned interbank payment and settlement ledgers; from irreversible smart contracts that are meant to embody the legal agreement to smart contracts with a point of entry for judicial intervention and which co-exist with a prevailing traditional contract. This dissertation establishes that all degrees of decentralization are or can be regulated by one way or another and that certain changes to the existing legal framework are desirable to maximally benefit from the unique capacities of distributed ledger technology.

Blockchain Technology and Smart Contracts in Decentralized Governance Systems

Administrative Sciences

The aim of our systematic review was to inspect the recently published literature on decentralized governance systems and integrate the insights it articulates on blockchain technology and smart contracts by employing Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. Throughout January and May 2022, a quantitative literature review of ProQuest, Scopus, and the Web of Science databases was carried out, with search terms including “city” + “blockchain technology”, “smart contracts”, and “decentralized governance systems”. As the analyzed research studies were published between 2016 and 2022, only 371 sources satisfied the eligibility criteria. A Shiny app was harnessed for the PRISMA flow diagram to include evidence-based acquired and handled data. Analyzing the most recent and relevant sources and leveraging screening and quality assessment tools such as AMSTAR, Dedoose, Distiller SR, ROBIS, and SRDR, we integrated the core outcomes and robust co...

MODERN CORPORATE GOVERNANCE: NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN COMPANY GOVERNANCE PRACTICES CONSIDERING DISTRIBUTED LEDGER TECHNOLOGY AND BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY

We went through a considerable restructuring of how information is processed and shared, and the impact on governments, the financial framework, and corporate governance are remarkable. Distributed Ledger Technology and Blockchain was foreseen by renowned scholars almost forty years ago but could only be applied using the technology we have available today. The implementation was also dependable on the opportunity to be accepted after chaotic events that affected trust and certainty in the financial system. Now it passes through a period of regulation and practice adjustments to adapt the technology on every single sector of the industry, as well the very basis of our financial system, including Central Banks and Stock Markets. Digital transformation allowed tokenization of assets and other revolutionary practices that changed Corporate Governance core principles.

Blockchain and smart contracts. What changes lie ahead for Banking and Financial Law?

Diritto del Risparmio, 2019

Banking and Financial Law are radically changing thanks to new technologies. In this paper, I try to offer a definition of blockchain and smart contracts, looking at the main features of these new tools and analyzing the recent action by the Italian legislator in order to define and regulate these new technologies, in the European context of reference.