Limitations of Blockchain in Contracts and Property

Abstract

The paper identifies what value blockchain adds to contractual and property processes, exploring its potential and analyzing the main difficulties it is facing. It argues that, contrary to naive conceptions that proclaim the end of intermediaries and state involvement, blockchain applications will rely on a variety of interface, completion, and enforcement specialists, including standard public interventions, especially for property transactions. Without these interventions, blockchain applications will at most enable trade in personal claims instead of property (i.e., in rem) rights, therefore facilitating personal instead of truly impersonal—that is, asset-based—transactions.