Journal article
COIN-OPERATED CAPITALISM
Shaanan Cohney, David Hoffman, Jeremy Sklaroff, David Wishnick
COLUMBIA LAW REVIEW | COLUMBIA JOURNAL TRANSNATIONAL LAW ASSOC | Published : 2019
DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.3215345
Abstract
This Article presents the legal literature’s first detailed analysis of the inner workings of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). We characterize the ICO as an example of financial innovation, placing it in kinship with venture capital contracting, asset securitization, and (obviously) the IPO. We also take the form seriously as an example of technological innovation, in which promoters are beginning to effectuate their promises to investors through computer code, rather than traditional contract. To understand the dynamics of this shift, we first collect contracts, “whitepapers,” and other disclosures for the fifty top-grossing ICOs of 2017. We then analyze how the software code controlling the ..
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