Prospects of blockchain in contract and property

Benito Arruñada

Economics Working Papers from Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Abstract: Recurrent difficulties are delaying what for the time being are still modest applications of blockchain. This paper identifies what value this new technology adds to the contractual and property processes, exploring its potential and analyzing the main difficulties it is facing. Paying particular attention to the distinction between contract (personal or in personam) rights and property (real or in rem) rights, it first examines the difficulties for trading contract rights through blockchain-based applications, mainly those to complete contracts ex ante without relying on third-party enforcers. Second, it explores the difficulties faced by blockchain to enable trade in property rights.

Keywords: property rights; enforcement; transaction costs; impersonal exchange; blockchain; distributed ledgers; smart contracts; registries. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D23 G38 H41 K11 K12 L85 O17 P48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-01
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Related works:
Chapter: Prospects of Blockchain in Contract and Property (2020)
Working Paper: Prospects of Blockchain in Contract and Property (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:upf:upfgen:1696

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