Bitcoin: an open source currency and more

Authors

  • Carlo Piana Array (https://array.eu)

Keywords:

Law, information technology, Free and Open Source Software, currency, cryptocurrency, blockchain, fintech

Abstract

The emergence of a cryptocurrency in the digital domain went unnoticed for years until the general press started to cover Bitcoin's more than tenfold raise in price in the space of a few months in 2017. Earlier on, technical and legal discussion revolved around one of its fundamental building blocks, but Bitcoin is more than the blockchain or an investment object. It is a revolutionary open source artefact that is bound to change the way we consider currency, as well as a proof-of-concept for how parts of international trade could disfranchise banks and other institutions as payment service providers.

Author Biography

  • Carlo Piana, Array (https://array.eu)
    Independent lawyer specialising in Information Technology and Telecommunication Law and Free Software Advocate. Started by using GNU/Linux and became intrigued by the legal and philosophical implications of it. Serves as Counsel to the Free Software Foundation Europe and advises projects and companies active in Free and Open Source Software. Based in Milan, he has accumulated experience for nearly 25 years in the IT legal consulting sector, in a medium-sized firm, as name partner in a boutique firm and now in a networked practice entirely dedicated to IT (Array). He has been involved in the largest antitrust litigation in Europe which led to the disclosure of secret protocols in the Workgroup Server area, and was called to the Board of the Protocol Freedom Information Foundation which he presides.

Downloads

Published

2018-04-04

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 1 (2017)

Section

Articles

License

The most restrictive licence we will accept for submission is Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 international (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) SPDX identifier CC-BY-4.0

How to Cite

Bitcoin: an open source currency and more. (2018). Journal of Open Law, Technology & Society, 9(1), 35-43. https://www.jolts.world/index.php/jolts/article/view/120