A blockchain is a cryptographically secured ledger. According to the United States District Court Southern District of New York in SEC v. Binance Holdings Limited, a blockchain uses cryptographically secured technologies to ensure the security of the recording and validating of cryptocurrency transactions.
Can a subsequent agreement to a platform’s contest terms alter the terms of an arbitration delegation clause originally agreed to in the platform’s general user agreement?
Petitioner Coinbase seeks to reverse the Ninth Circuit’s ruling that a subsequent contract regarding the terms for a contest with the contest platform’s registered users limits the scope of the platform’s general user agreement on arbitration and how that scope is determined. The parties dispute whether original agreement’s text forecloses subsequent modification and whether the Federal Arbitration Act and California contract law govern that determination. The outcome of this case carries implications for contract predictability, the authority of arbitrators, and the power of the Federal Arbitration Act.
Whether, where parties enter into an arbitration agreement with a delegation clause, an arbitrator or a court should decide whether that arbitration agreement is narrowed by a later contract that is silent as to arbitration and delegation.
In January 2018, David Suski opened a Coinbase account. Suski v. Marden-Kane. Upon opening his account, Suski agreed to the arbitration provision listed in the Coinbase User Agreement. Suski v. Coinbase.
Convertible virtual currency (CVC) is a category of virtual currency. One subcategory of CVC is cryptocurrency. The key lies in its convertibility. Both the IRS and FinCEN have defined CVC in two dimensions:
Federal courts and federal governmental agencies hold the view that cryptocurrency is a subcategory of virtual currency. Yet, there is no single definition of virtual currency or cryptocurrency at this time. In fact, the term cryptocurrency may be used interchangeably with other similar terms, such as digital currency, cryptoasset, or digital asset.
A directed acyclic graph (DAG) is a chainless model of distributed ledger technology (DLT), that exists in parallel to a chain-based model, such as blockchain. Yet, directed acyclic graphs are not as widely used as blockchains in the cryptocurrency industry.
The definition of distributed ledger technology (DLT) appears in federal legislation, such as 42 U.S.C. § 19222, in state legislation, such as in Arkansas and Tennessee, as well as in reports published by the U.S.
Proof-of-work (PoW) is a consensus mechanism used to regulate the addition of new blocks to certain blockchains, such as Bitcoin. In a PoW system, miners compete to solve a complex mathematical puzzle.
