Contracts Commons^™

After Ftx: Can The Original Bitcoin Use Case Be Saved?, Mark Burge

Faculty Scholarship

Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies spawned by the innovation of blockchain programming have exploded in prominence, both in gains of massive market value and in dramatic market losses, the latter most notably seen in connection with the failure of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange in November 2022. After years of investment and speculation, however, something crucial has faded: the original use case for Bitcoin as a system of payment. Can cryptocurrency-as-a-payment-system be saved, or are day traders and speculators the actual cryptocurrency future? This article suggests that cryptocurrency has been hobbled by a lack of foundational commercial and consumer-protection law that …

Carrying A Good Joke Too Far, Peter A. Alces, Jason M. Hopkins

Peter A. Alces

No abstract provided.

Apple Pay, Bitcoin, And Consumers: The Abcs Of Future Public Payments Law, Mark Edwin Burge

Mark Edwin Burge

Bitcoin And The Uniform Commercial Code, Jeanne L. Schroeder

Faculty Articles

Much of the discussion of bitcoin in the popular press has concentrated on its status as a currency. Putting aside a vocal minority of radical libertarians and anarchists, however, many bitcoin enthusiasts are concentrating on how its underlying technology – the blockchain – can be put to use for wide variety of uses. For example, economists at the Fed and other central banks have suggested that they should encourage the evolution of bitcoin’s blockchain protocol which might allow financial transactions to clear much efficiently than under our current systems. As such, it also holds out the possibility of becoming that …

Bringing Continuity To Cryptocurrency: Commercial Law As A Guide To The Asset Categorization Of Bitcoin, Evan Hewitt

Seattle University Law Review

This Note will undertake to analyze bitcoin under the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) and the Internal Revenue Code (IRC)—two important sources of commercial law—to see whether any existing asset categories adequately protect bitcoin’s commercial viability. This Note will demonstrate that although commercial law dictates that bitcoin should—nay must—be regulated as a currency in order to sustain its existence, the very definition of currency seems to preclude that from happening. Therefore, this Note will recommend that we experiment with a new type of asset that receives currency-like treatment, specifically designed for cryptocurrencies, under which bitcoin can be categorized in order to …

Carrying A Good Joke Too Far, Peter A. Alces, Jason M. Hopkins

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Article 5 - Recent Developments, James J. White

Other Publications

I. Mitigation in Letter of Credit Transactions Assume a Buyer has procured a letter of credit to pay for contracted goods but no longer wants the goods. The Buyer and the Issuer would like to force the Beneficiary to mitigate. Assume that both the Issuer and Applicant repudiate their obligation or that the Applicant has failed and the Issuer repudiates its obligation to pay under the letter of credit. At the moment of repudiation the price for a gallon of the underlying oil that is the subject of the letter of credit is $.75 and that the letter of credit …

Article 5: Highlights Of The Proposed Revision, James J. White

Other Publications

I. The Current Status of Article 5: Drafting, Approval and Promulgation--The Most Significant Changes or Clarifications -- II. The Most Contentious Issues in the Revision of Article 5 -- III. More Subtle Questions About Revised Article 5

Actions On Commercial Paper: Holder's Procedural Advantages Under Article Three, Stanley V. Kinyon

Michigan Law Review

The discussion will also be concerned primarily with the usual action "on the instrument": an action by the holder to enforce payment by a person who has signed it as maker, acceptor, certifier, drawer, indorser, or guarantor and has thus become "liable on" it. These instruments, of course, may be involved in other types of actions, such as: an action for conversion of the instrument (section 3-419); an action to recover damages for breach of the warranties of a collector or transferor (sections 3-417 and 4-207); an action to compel indorsement (section 3-201); an action to enjoin payment (section 5-114(2)(b)); …