Pastore has been retained by the author of the leading text used at Harvard in the “Starting a Private Investment Firm” course to pursue business torts committed by his former AI Venture Capital Fund General Partner and its affiliated individuals. The defendants, spanning Colorado and Texas, are alleged to have purposefully manipulated the client to build the AI fund, and then cut him out of the carry and returns. The case is pending in the District of Connecticut.
Tag: Advanced Technology
Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities, COVID-19, and the New Potential Systematic Risk
A commercial mortgage-backed security (“CMBS”) is a group of bonds comprised of commercial real estate loans commonly contained in trusts which are then sold to investors.[1] As of 2020, the largest loan contributors to the CMBS market include large banks, such as Citibank, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America.[2] The commercial property loans securitized by CMBS are generally compromised of commercial properties such as apartment buildings, hotels, factories, office buildings and parks, or shopping malls.[3] These bundles of bonds are also referred to as tranches.[4] CMBS loans are ranked – those with the highest rating have the lowest risk, and those with the lowest rating have the highest risk.[5] Lower risked bonds are known as senior issue, and higher risk bonds are known as junior issue.[6] After the bonds are sold, the bank receives the money from the sale.[7] The bank then lends these proceeds to a subsequent borrower to collect additional fees.[8]
Investing in CMBS poses a lower risk to borrowers than a residential mortgage-backed security (“RMBS”) loan because commercial mortgages typically have a fixed term.[9] CMBS loans are also compromised of fewer loans than RMBS loans.[10] Many investors seek out this loan because they are interested in obtaining property for an extended period of time and CBMS loans provide lower interest rates.[11] Other incentives of CMBS loans include a higher leverage financing, and CMBS loans are nonrecourse loans, and thus have a wider range of accessibility, because investors with lower credit are more readily able to obtain these loans. [12]
Although there are numerous advantages of CMBS loans, there are several disadvantages tied to a CMBS loan investment. First, these loans have prepayment penalties, which penalize a borrower for paying back a loan outside of the fixed term, even in the circumstance where the borrower pays the loan back earlier than the predetermined date.[13] Second, CMBS loans go through a defeasance profess before prepayment, which can be a painstaking process involving the borrower consulting with a financial advisor in order to set up alternative securities to replace any collateral and interest that the lender no longer is obligated to.[14] Lastly, the terms of CMBS loans are more difficult to negotiate, and a borrower has little or no say in the terms of the loans.[15]
The CMBS market has been greatly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. A shift towards working from home has created a failure of roughly $5.5 billion commercial mortgage loans since the summer of 2020.[16] The delinquency rate of CMBS loans in June 2020 was reported to be 10.32%. [17] The delinquency rate continued to increase during October of 2020, during the second wave of the pandemic.[18] The trends of CMBS loans due to the financial crisis that the pandemic has caused are almost identical to the trends of CMBS loans during the 2012 financial crisis, which poses an alarming issue when considering the impact the 2012 crisis had on the CMBS market.[19] The rise of delinquency rates is directly correlated to the effects that COVID-19 has had on commercial real estate: apartment owners, retail owners, restaurants, and hotels are bringing in substantially less income, and are left unable to pay mortgage and other commercial property-related debts.[20]
The last financial crisis in 2012 led to grave delinquencies in the CMBS market, which may signal that the CMBS market will undergo similar disruption in the future, indicative of a similar systemic risk.[21] However, much has been learned from former financial crises and the risks they pose on all types of mortgage backed-security loans, to avoid unnecessary risk in the CMBS market. Congress enacted the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act after the 2007-2008 financial crisis, which affects CMBS by “including risk-retention requirements for asset-backed security sponsors, increased disclosure requirements, the Volcker Rule and enhanced capitalization requirements for banks.”[22]
These protective measures are an attempt to make the CMBS market a safer space for investors by decreasing the systematic risk that the CMBS market decline may have on the overall economy.[23] An unforeseen consequence has been an increase in the price of entry into the CMBS market which affects retail investors, and aspects such as the Volcker Rule, which decreases market liquidity and restricts proprietary trading by preventing a bank from holding inventories of secondary market securities and disallowing a banks from investing in real estate.[24]
While the effects from the COVID-19 pandemic may affect the CMBS market and make these loans less accessible to borrowers, overall, the Dodd-Frank reforms have likely mitigated a majority of the risk to the CMBS market directly tied to COVID-19 and will provide a lasting benefit by decreasing this systematic risk impacting the overall economy.
[1] Owen Haney, The Virus, Risk, and Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities: Examining Dodd-Frank’s Impact in the Midst of a Pandemic, 26 Fordham J. Corp. & Fin. L. 391, 394 (2021)
[2]Id.
[3]Carol M. Kopp, Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS), Investopedia, (October 25, 2020), https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cmbs.asp
[4]Thomas Kenny, What are Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities?, The Balance, (October 7, 2021), https://www.thebalance.com/what-are-commercial-mortgage-backed-securities-cmbs-416910
[5]Id.
[6]Id.
[7]Id.
[8]Id.
[9]Carol M. Kopp, Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS), Investopedia, (October 25, 2020), https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cmbs.asp
[10]Maegan E. O’Rourke, The New Normal: How the Dodd-Frank Risk Retention Rules Affect the Future of CMBS, 51 Suffolk Univ. L. Rev. 77, 81-82 (2018).
[11]Understanding CMBS and CLO Markets, Signet Investments, “https://signetinvestments.com/understanding-cmbs-and-clo-markets/” https://signetinvestments.com/understanding-cmbs-and-clo-markets/ (Last visited November 6 2021)
[12]Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS): A guide, Quicken Loans (January 27, 2021), https://www.quickenloans.com/learn/cmbs
[13]Id.
[14]Id.
[15]Id.
[16]Dorothy Neufield, Commercial Mortgage Delinquencies Near Record Levels, Visual Capitalist (July 16, 2020), https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mortgage-delinquencies/
[17]U.S. CMBS Delinquencies Resume Increase in October, Fitch Ratings (November 6, 2020), “https://www.fitchratings.com/research/structured-finance/us-cmbs-delinquencies-resume-increase-in-october-06-11-2020” https://www.fitchratings.com/research/structured-finance/us-cmbs-delinquencies-resume-increase-in-october-06-11-2020
[18]Id.
[19]Owen Haney, The Virus, Risk, and Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities: Examining Dodd-Frank’s Impact in the Midst of a Pandemic, 26 Fordham J. Corp. & Fin. L. 391, 394 (2021)
[20] Peter J. Irwin et al., CMBS Loan Workouts During COVID-19: A Borrower’s Perspective, Debevoise & Plimpton (May 14, 2020), https://www.debevoise.com/-/media/files/insights/publications/2020/05/20200514-cmbs-loan-workouts-during-covid-19.pdf https://www.debevoise.com/-/media/files/insights/publications/2020/05/20200514-cmbs-loan-workouts-during-covid-19.pdf
[21]Steven L. Schwarcz, Systematic Regulation of Systematic Risk, 2019 Wis. L. Rev. 1, 1 (2019).
[22]Owen Haney, The Virus, Risk, And Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities: Examining Dodd-Frank’s Impact in the Midst of a Pandemic, 26 Fordham J. Corp. & Fin. L. 391, 401 (2021)
[23]Craig Furfine, The Impact of Risk Retention Regulation on the Underwriting of Securitized Mortgages, 58 J. FIN. SERVS. RSCH. 91, 93 (2020).
[24]Volcker Rule, The Real Estate Round Table https://www.rer.org/policy-issues/capital-credit/volcker-rule https://www.rer.org/policy-issues/capital-credit/volcker-rule (Last visited November 6, 2021)
Federal Jury Rules Four Cryptocurrency products are not Securities
A recent decision in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut appears to be the first of its kind in the nation. In the case Audet et al v. Garza et al, a federal jury recently weighed in on whether cryptocurrency products were considered securities.[1] The jury held that four digital-asset products linked to cryptocurrency were not securities.[2]
In the case, a class of customers brought an action against GAW Miners LLC (“GAW Miners”) and ZenMiner LLC (“ZenMiner”) for running a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme.[3] When GAW Miners and ZenMiner were faced with demands from customers for the physical cryptocurrency mining equipment which they could not meet, GAW Miners and ZenMiner turned to Hashlets, Hashpoints, Paycoin and HashStakers (collectively the “Digital Assets”). [4] These Digital Assets provided customers with a portion of the computing power without owning the physical hardware.[5] Moreover, the Digital Assets served as virtual wallets for the promissory notes and virtual currency of GAW Miners and ZenMiner.[6] The plaintiffs argued that these Digital Assets were investment contracts and therefore were unregulated securities.[7]
The plaintiffs asked Judge Michael Shea to rule as a matter of law that the Digital Assets were securities under the Howey test. [8] The Supreme Court in Howey stated an investment contract exists when “a person invests his money in a common enterprise and is led to expect profits solely from the efforts of the promoter or a third party.” [9] However, in an unusual decision, Judge Shea declined to rule as a matter of law that the Digital Assets were securities.[10] Instead, the judge left the issue of how to classify the Digital Assets for the jury.[11] Despite the SEC previously referring to one of the Digital Assets, Hashlets, as a security in a case against one of the former defendants in this case,[12] the jury ruled that the Digital Assets were not investment contracts, and therefore, they were not securities.[13]
The issue of how to define cryptocurrencies is an ongoing debate, and the federal jury’s ruling in this case does not settle it.
[1] Elise Hansen, Crypto Mining-Linked Products Weren’t Securities, Jury Finds, Law360 (Nov. 2, 2021), https://www.law360.com/articles/1436790/crypto-mining-linked-products-weren-t-securities-jury-finds.
[2] Id.
[3] HHR Wins Groundbreaking Jury Verdict in Crypto Fraud Trial, HHR (Nov. 3, 2021), https://www.hugheshubbard.com/news/hhr-wins-groundbreaking-jury-verdict-in-crypto-fraud-trial.
[4] Id.
[5] Hansen, supra note 1.
[6] Id.
[7] Id.
[8] Alison Frankel, In apparent first, Conn. class action jury finds crypto products are not securities, Reuters (Nov. 3, 2021), https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/apparent-first-conn-class-action-jury-finds-crypto-products-are-not-securities-2021-11-03/.
[9] SEC v. W. J. Howey Co., 328 U.S. 293, 298–99 (1946).
[10] Id.
[11] Id.
[12] HRR, supra note 3.
[13] Hansen, supra note 1.
Cryptocurrencies: Security, Currency, or None of the Above?
As interest in cryptocurrencies (“crypto”) continues to rise, businesses and investors are left wondering what regulations they must follow. While crypto may contain the word “currency” in its name, it is unclear whether it truly is a currency. There has been a lot of debate over which category it belongs to for regulatory purposes.1 Is it a currency or a security? The SEC has yet to provide guidance on this rapidly developing market.
Simply put, a currency is a store of value, unit of account, and medium of exchange, while a security is a tradable financial asset that has monetary value.2 The Securities Act of 1933 (“the ‘33 Act”) provides a list of what qualifies as a security, and crypto is not included. However, the list contains investment contracts, which is the category the SEC has openly debated whether cryptocurrencies belong.3 The Supreme Court in Howey stated an investment contract exists when “a person invests his money in a common enterprise and is led to expect profits solely from the efforts of the promoter or a third party.”4
The determination of which category crypto belongs in is essential for investors as it implicates which governing body has the authority to regulate the market. If crypto is categorized as a currency, the SEC lacks jurisdiction. If it is considered a security, it falls squarely in the SEC’s jurisdiction and becomes subject to the agency’s strict reporting and trading regulations.
The SEC is not the only government agency that has failed to provide clear guidance on what category crypto belongs in. The IRS still refers businesses to its 2014 Notice where it opined on the topic.5 The 2014 Notice stated it is “aware that ‘virtual currency’” exists and referred to “Bitcoin” as a convertible virtual currency because it has an equivalent value in real currency. However, in the same notice, it stated that virtual currency could be held as a capital asset like stocks and bonds.
Something that tends to complicate the classification of crypto even more is the fact that it seems a specific cryptocurrency’s classification may change over time. This happened in the case of the token ether, the primary token for Ethereum.8 The then SEC Chairman decided it no longer met the Howey test and declared it not a security. Then SEC Chairman Clayton also stated that Bitcoin was not a security due to its decentralized nature.10
Even though the SEC has stated Bitcoin and ether are not securities, the question remains on what the status is of the numerous other cryptos. A recent action brought by the SEC against Ripple Labs, Inc. (“Ripple”) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York could significantly impact how crypto is regulated and categorized. The SEC argues that XRP, Ripple’s cryptocurrency, is an investment contract under the Howey test, and therefore by not registering it, Ripple sold XRP as an unregistered security.11 While the parties have entered into settlement discussions, it is still a case to watch for potential regulatory impacts on cryptos.
While it is still unclear whether cryptos are securities or currency for regulatory purposes, one thing is clear: the market is only continuing to grow, and the SEC and other government agencies are taking notice of the unregulated area. Common sense, sound legal advice, and diligence will help any business or investor navigate this market despite the uncertainty surrounding crypto.
1. SEC Reckons With Crypto’s Currency And Security Conundrum, PYMNTS (Apr. 20, 2021).
2. Public Statement, Bill Hinman, Dir. Of Div. of Corp. Fin., SEC; Valerie Szczepanik, Senior Advisor for Digital Assets & Innovation, SEC, Statement on “Framework for ‘Investment Contract’ Analysis of Digital Assets” (Apr. 13, 2019).
3. Public Statement, Chair Gary Gensler, SEC, Remarks Before the Aspen Security Forum (Aug. 3, 2021).
4. SEC v. W. J. Howey Co., 328 U.S. 293, 298–99 (1946).
5. I.R.S. Notice 2014-21, 2014-16 I.R.B. 938 (Apr. 14, 2014).
6. Id.
7. Id.
8. David Borsack & Cole Schotz, Cryptocurrencies And The Security And Exchange Commission, JDSUPPRA (Aug. 4, 2021).
9. Aaron Hankin, SEC’s Jay Clayton says Ether isn’t a security, reiterating the regulator’s stance, MarketWatch (Mar. 12, 2019).
10. Is Crypto A Commodity or Security?, SoFi (Apr. 27, 2021).
11. Press Release, SEC, SEC Charges Ripple and Two Executives with Conducting $1.3 Billion Unregistered Securities Offering (Dec. 22, 2020).
Recent Landmark Decision in Cryptocurrency Law
A recent decision in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York has sent shockwaves through the world of cryptocurrency investing. In re Bibox Group Holdings Ltd. Securities Litigation, the Court ruled that a plaintiff did not have standing to assert class claims on cryptocurrency assets he did not own. However, it was what the court didn’t rule on that made this a landmark case in the legal field developing around cryptocurrency, as the Court took no issue with the fact that the Plaintiff brought a case alleging securities violations against a cryptocurrency issuer and exchange.
The background on this matter is as follows. In October 2017, Bibox Group Holdings Ltd. and their affiliates funded the launch of their new crypto exchange by launching a new ERC-20 cryptocurrency called BIX. In this offering of BIX, Bibox raised approximately $19 million in funding. Bibox told investors that they could exchange BIX for tokens on their exchange, and Bibox would use a portion of the funds raised in the offering to buy back some of the BIX that was issued. BIX was one of six ERC-20 tokens on the exchange, with the others being EOS, TRX, OMG, LEND, and ELF.
The Plaintiff, Mr. Alexander Clifford, was one of the initial investors who bought BIX. Mr. Clifford ended up exchanging his BIX for Bitcoin in December 2018. Mr. Clifford never purchased or owned any of the other tokens. On April 3, 2020, Mr. Clifford then filed an action in the Southern District of New York against Bibox and their affiliates. In his complaint, Mr. Clifford alleged that Bibox had violated federal securities law and state Blue Sky law in connection with the trading activities of the six tokens. Defendants moved for a motion to dismiss, arguing that Mr. Clifford lacked standing since he was asserting claims based on the five tokens he did not purchase, and that his claims pertaining to the one token he owned were time-barred.
Judge Denise Cote of the Southern District of New York granted the motion to dismiss as to all claims, ruling that Plaintiff lacked standing to assert claims based on the five tokens he had never purchased. This was for two reasons. First, the Plaintiff did not suffer any injury from the unpurchased tokens. Second, the Court precluded standing on the grounds that “such conduct implicates the same set of concerns as the conduct alleged to have caused injury to other members of the putative class[1]” because all the tokens were made by different entities and had distinct characteristics and advertising history, meaning the injuries could not be proven in a similar enough way to allege standing.
The Court also dismissed the remainder of claims Plaintiff asserted on the token he did purchase, BIX. In doing so, the Court rejected the argument that the one-year statute of limitations began to run when the cryptocurrency Plaintiff discovered the token could qualify as a security. This is because the SEC had previously issued a publication on April 3, 2019 stating that cryptocurrencies may be qualified as securities under the Howey test in the right circumstances. Rather, the Court held that the statute of limitations began to run when Plaintiff became aware of his injury, which was his last transaction in April 2018.
The main takeaway here is that the Court did not rule that securities laws did not apply to crypto, but rather took issue with the Plaintiff’s standing. It makes it clear that cryptocurrency issuers and exchanges could be held liable under securities law for their actions. In addition, while the Court precluded the “same set of concerns is implicated” argument, it is possible another court could find otherwise. This is due to the fact that the six tokens were on the same exchange, used the same blockchain and were based on the same technological standard. In conclusion, the rapidly developing field of law around cryptocurrency is one that continues to require close monitoring because of major developments such as this.
[1] Ret. Bd. of the Policemen’s Annuity & Ben. Fund of the City of Chicago v. Bank of N.Y. Mellon, 775 F.3d 154, 161 (2d Cir. 2014)
Pastore & Dailey Secures Settlement in Failed Systems Case
Pastore & Dailey recently secured a favorable settlement in a case involving the loss of server data from an accounting firm. The settlement, which was reached after the loss of vital data from the client’s computer network, helped the client offset substantial financial harm produced by the server failure.
Cryptocurrency Mining and the Danger of Halving
As cryptocurrencies continue to grow more sophisticated and widespread, the economic possibilities offered by cryptocurrency mining have drawn greater attention from prospective investors. Cryptocurrency mining, which helps to ensure that “transactions for various forms of cryptocurrency are verified and added to the blockchain digital ledger,”1 is a potentially profitable activity because a small amount of cryptocurrency is awarded to the “miner” able to verify the transaction fastest. On a large scale, cryptocurrency mining could potentially provide a solid revenue stream to a company able to overcome hurdles related to capital and operating costs. In the first place, the capital costs (in terms of computers, software, and other tools) that deter many would-be cryptocurrency miners would not constitute major impediments to any well-funded company intent on entering the field. But operating costs, rather than capital costs, constitute a larger problem for large-scale cryptocurrency mining companies. Because a certain amount of power is consumed whenever cryptocurrency is successfully mined, ensuring that the cost of electricity does not exceed the value of the cryptocurrency awarded is necessary before any such mining can be profitable. The power required to validate one cryptocurrency transaction, while not large on its own, adds up quickly in the context of large-scale mining operations. According to a report compiled by Coinshares, which provides cryptocurrency-related research and investment tools, companies and individuals mining Bitcoin (a popular cryptocurrency) consume roughly 41 terawatts a year in power.2 And according to that same report, investing in higher-quality equipment will not reduce the power requirement because “only the value of the [cryptocurrency] reward[…]can impact the network’s total electricity draw.”2 The solution, then, is to locate sources of cheap electricity – a solution which many cryptocurrency mining companies have already hit upon. In fact, the report notes that bitcoin miners tend to cluster in “regions dominated by cheap hydro-power,” especially the Pacific Northwest and Northeast regions of the United States.3 Although the influx of cryptocurrency mining operations into these areas has produced a measure of political backlash,4 it is not unreasonable to assume that the economic benefits conferred by such activities will soon outweigh such resistance.
Despite the evident promise of large-scale cryptocurrency mining, some have suggested that the upcoming “halving” of the cryptocurrency awarded for mining Bitcoin might seriously eat into profits and upset the delicate balance of power costs.5 However, this is not likely to constitute a serious headache for the industry for several reasons. First, as a Forbes article on the “halving” notes, Bitcoin operates according to the basic principles of supply and demand. That is to say, as fewer and fewer Bitcoins are disbursed during the mining process, fewer are available to be traded, causing their price to increase. This would conceivably offset the “halving” somewhat. Moreover, the recent increase in miner fees6 (fees paid by blockchain users to miners which supplement the cryptocurrency awarded) could also counterbalance the “halving.” All in all, despite the obstacles posed by power costs, capital investment and the gradual reduction of cryptocurrency awarded, large-scale cryptocurrency mining promises both steady revenue and growth potential in the years to come.
- https://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/cryptocurrency-mining.html
- https://coinshares.co.uk/assets/resources/Research/bitcoin-mining-network-june-2019-fidelity-foreword.pdf , pg. 6
- https://coinshares.co.uk/assets/resources/Research/bitcoin-mining-network-june-2019-fidelity-foreword.pdf, pg. 10
- https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/03/09/bitcoin-mining-energy-prices-smalltown-feature-217230
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesfinancecouncil/2019/05/10/what-will-the-next-halving-mean-for-the-price-of-bitcoin/#d8a2fc15f340
- https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-fees-jump-to-nearly-1-year-highs-but-why
Technology Regulation in the Federal Securities Market
Pastore & Dailey LLC has an extensive RegTech practice, and Jack Hewitt, a P&D Partner, is one of the country’s authorities in this area. In line with this, P&D is pleased to announce that Bloomberg BNA has just published Mr. Hewitt’s new treatise, Technology Regulation in the Federal Securities Markets.
The treatise is structured into three major segments – cybersecurity, the new market technologies and blockchain. The cybersecurity segment provides a comprehensive review of all applicable federal and state regulations and guidelines while the market technology segment addresses, among others, the Cloud, robo-advisers and smart contracts. The final segment, Blockchain, includes cryptocurrency, tokens and ICOs. Mr. Hewitt, whose expertise extends to virtually all major business sectors, regularly reviews client cybersecurity and technology procedures and would be pleased to discuss performing one for your firm.
Please use the below link to view the Table of Contents and the chapters on Information Security Programs and ICOs of the new treatise.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/pdlaw-cdn.sitesdoneright.net/userfiles/WebSample.pdf
Cryptocurrency Technology Is Driving Innovation
Interest in cryptocurrency and its underlying technology has steadily rose over the past several years. The final week of 2017 alone saw the debut of over a dozen new cryptocurrencies within the market. Moreover, Bitcoin’s explosive increase in value in 2017 from $1,000 to almost $20,000 has made “Bitcoin” and “cryptocurrency” household terms.[1] The accelerating rate of creation of new currencies and the fluctuation in value of various existing currencies have provided investors with substantial profit opportunities. Unsurprisingly, the financial services industry is making significant investments in the underlying block-chain technology. From individual programmers to large fintech firms, there is a race to secure the intellectual property rights for all aspects of block-chain and cryptocurrency technology.
Financial Services
The block-chain technology functions to increase security and decrease inefficiencies regarding cyber transactions. The software accomplishes this by securely hosting a transaction between two individuals without the requirement of a third party to transfer and record the exchange of funds (i.e. banks, credit card companies, etc.). The transactions are then publicly memorialized in a distributed ledger as a link in the chain’s archive. At its core, the block-chain model is a peer-to-peer system; because of this, the software has the potential to revolutionize the financial services industry by reducing the number of parties required to send and receive payments. This decentralized model is one of the characteristics that makes block-chain unique, and financial firms have recognized the tremendous value of the software.
As the value of the block-chain model became more apparent, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) was flooded with new patent applications concerning block-chain and cryptocurrencies. At the end of 2017, Bank of America, Mastercard, Paypal and Capital One were leading the field in research and development, and represented the top four patent holding entities in the realm of block-chain and cryptocurrencies.[2] The primary technological focus of these top four firms has been financial forecasting, digital data processing and transmission of secure digital data.[3] In fact, Bank of America was recently issued its latest patent from the USPTO, which outlined a cryptocurrency exchange system that would seamlessly convert one digital currency to another.[4] It may be no coincidence that the top four firms leading research and development on block-chain are those that stand to lose the most from the elimination of third-parties in cyber transactions. It is important, at this point in block-chain’s development, that such firms secure a position on the new playing field if cryptocurrency does displace traditional transaction models.
Internet Data Usage
The sprint to secure intellectual property rights does not, however, solely focus on the current block-chain technology; firms are also looking ahead on how to improve the software and how to benefit from future developments and applications. Several firms are focusing specifically on the distributed ledger aspect of block-chain in order to create a personal virtual identity for each of the software’s users.[5] This concept has significant potential to allow individuals to begin to profit off of their personal data. Currently, websites such as Google, Amazon and Facebook track individual’s internet usage and gain considerable value from their personal data with little to no benefit to the user. The creation of an online avatar that hoards this data in a ledger, and makes it available only with the user’s permission, could bring significance to an individual’s internet browsing data. Users could begin to charge companies a fee to gain limited access to this information, even in miniscule amounts. Cryptocurrency effortlessly weaves itself into the system because currencies like Bitcoin are divisible to the hundredth of a millionth degree. This divisibility makes it possible for you to extract value from as little as 0.00000001 of a Bitcoin for a company to see that you have been looking at Volkswagens on Craigslist all afternoon.
This virtual identity system may not be too far off. In 2017, the state of Illinois launched a block-chain pilot for the digitization of personal data, such as birth certificates.[6] The system has the potential to be the framework for the digital identities discussed above, and could further establish an extraordinarily convenient method of sharing verified personal documents.[7] Although this system immediately raises the question of cybersecurity in the minds of most, block-chain technology is, in fact, vastly more secure than our current systems.[8]
Cyber Security
In 2017, Equifax saw one of the largest cyber security breaches in history. The current method of storing millions of individuals’ personal data is piling it together on the same system, which is then encrypted and secured. The issue, as illustrated by Equifax, is that once the security mechanisms are breached, the cyber burglar then has access to the entirety of the stored data.[9] Block-chain, however, stores each individual’s data separately in its own encrypted and secured space. If a hacker wished to steal data from a block-chain, they would be required to decrypt each of the individual’s data separately; in the case of Equifax, the hacker(s) would have been required to bypass 140,000,000 encryptions.[10] For this reason, cyber security firms are becoming increasingly involved in block-chain technology as well.
Mobile Applications
The cyber security and financial services industries are not the only industries honing in on the cryptocurrency craze. It is also worth mentioning the flood of new applications from the mobile software market. The rapid origination rate of mobile applications, no matter how redundant or superfluous they may seem, is compelling United States intellectual property filings. Cryptocurrency mobile applications can provide a wide range of services for their users: market information through applications such as zTrader, Bitcoin Checker and Bitcoin Price IQ; portfolio services through Cryptonator, CoinDex and Mycelium; and trading platforms through Coinbase, CEX.IO and CoinCap. More significantly, many of the most popular websites which provide mobile application support are beginning to accept cryptocurrency as a payment method. Notably, online retailer Overstock.com, online dating service OkCupid.com, electronics retailer Newegg.com, and travel booking agency Expedia.com are among the firms now accepting bitcoin as payment for their services.[11] Cryptocurrency also has the potential to transform the mobile gaming industry.
A dimension of mobile applications which has received a lot of negative publicity over the past few years is predatory in-app purchases. Many mobile gaming applications, which are typically marketed to children and teenagers, are free to download and play, but incentivize frequent micro-transactions from the user. These aptly dubbed “freemium” games result in cases of young users racking up a bill in the range of several hundreds of dollars, to their parent’s surprise. In fact, many applications offer purchases of in-game currencies up to $99 per transaction. This model may change, for better or for worse, with the rise of cryptocurrency. As discussed above, the Bitcoin is divisible to the hundredth of a millionth degree. The mobile gaming industry could see a transition from incentivizing young players to make frequent large transactions, to mobile games charging a fraction of a Bitcoin per minute (or second) of game time. The application would likely request access to your Bitcoin wallet and simply deduct fragments of a Bitcoin for as long as the game remains active. Whether this will be a welcome change is to be determined.
Conclusion
Cryptocurrency and block-chain technology are causing us to rethink our current financial and cyber-social systems. The characteristics that make block-chain unique—the decentralized model, distributed ledger, individual security, sense of virtual identity—are quickly being applied in new and innovative ways. The result is a surge in new intellectual property from forward thinking firms as we move into what may be an important technological shift for many of our country’s industries.
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[1] Coindesk, Bitcoin (USD) Price, Coindesk (last visited Jan. 2, 2018) https://www.coindesk.com/price/.
[2] Jay Sharma, How Bitcoin Became a Game Changer Overnight, IPWatchdog (Dec. 4, 2017), http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2017/12/04/bitcoin-game-changer-overnight/id=90519/.
[3] Id.
[4] Nikhilesh De, Bank of America Wins Patent for Crypto Exchange System (Dec. 7, 2017, 3:00 UTC), https://www.coindesk.com/bank-of-america-outlines-cryptocurrency-exchange-system-in-patent-award/; the Bank of America patent granted by the USPTO is identified by United States Patent No. 9,936,790.
[5] Michael Mainelli, Blockchain Could Help Us Reclaim Control of Our Personal Data, Harvard Business Review (Oct. 5, 2017), https://hbr.org/2017/10/smart-ledgers-can-help-us-reclaim-control-of-our-personal-data.
[6] Michael del Castillo, Illinois Launches Blockchain Pilor to Digitize Birth Certificates, Coindesk (Aug. 31, 2017, 23:00 UTC), https://www.coindesk.com/illinois-launches-blockchain-pilot-digitize-birth-certificates/.
[7] Id.
[8] See Mainelli, supra note 5.
[9] See Mainelli, supra note 5.
[10] Id.
[11] Mariam Nishanian, 8 surprising places where you can pay with bicoin, Business Insider (Oct. 11, 2017 6:00 PM), http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-price-8-surprising-places-where-you-can-use-2017-10/#expediacom-1.
Pastore & Dailey Retained by Leading Specialty Technology Manufacturer
Pastore & Dailey has been retained by a leading specialty technology manufacturer in connection with a dispute over software ownership in Singapore and China.