Goodwin will host the Silicon Valley Ethereum Meetup’s monthly gathering on Sunday, May 7, 2017 at our office in Menlo Park, CA. Panelists Daniel Buchner, Head of Decentralized Identity at Microsoft, Andy Atkin, a voice in experimental psychology and healthcare IT, and Grant Fondo, Partner and Chair of Goodwin’s Digital…
For the last 3 1/2 years, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been considering whether to approve placement of the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust ETF (Nasdaq: COIN) on the Bats exchange. The Bats exchange is currently the largest U.S. equities market operator, and placement of COIN on the exchange would essentially allow…
Distributed ledger technology (DLT) is starting to play a larger role in business operations around the world. IBM has partnered with both Walmart and Maersk to use DLT to track shipments of goods. In fact, IBM has nearly 400 clients testing out the technology and has dedicated approximately 650 employees…
For the last three and a half years, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) has been considering whether to approve placement of the Winklevoss bitcoin ETF (“COIN”) on the Bats exchange. However, the SEC’s inaction will end by March 11th, which is the SEC’s deadline to either reject COIN, or have it be automatically approved due to the…
Lawmakers and central banks are in the midst of a movement to gradually diminish and ultimately eliminate the use of cash by their citizens [1]. This global trend comes in all different flavors as over the past year and a half, some countries have eliminated high-value banknotes (India) [2] or…
Many are expecting 2017 to be a great year for blockchain technology. As 2017 began, the price of Bitcoin, one of the most-recognized digital currencies using blockchain technology, rose to over $1,000 in the wake of market uncertainty surrounding Brexit, the U.S. election, and other global events. Moreover, while banks…
Last week, Circle announced major changes to its application and platform. While many focused on Circle’s decision to cut its users’ ability to buy and sell Bitcoin, the breaking news may have been its decision to create a payments platform called Spark that is akin to Paypal or Venmo, but…
Grant Fondo, Co-Chair of Goodwin’s Digital Currency + Blockchain Technology practice, recently spoke with The Recorder on the changing roles of lawyers in the blockchain space. The article addresses the challenges blockchain lawyers face due to the highly specialized, technical and constantly changing nature of the industry. As the industry evolves, blockchain lawyers not…
Last month, Senegal announced its intention to introduce a national digital currency based on block chain technology, and become only the second country in the world following Tunisia to do so. Senegal’s new digital currency – called “eCFA” – will co-exist as legal tender alongside Senegal’s fiat currency, the…
Blockchain, most notably linked to Bitcoin, is very much a technology on the rise. Blockchain has recently made its way to Wall Street, with the largest financial institutions clamoring to partner with buzzing fintech startups to gain an understanding of the ins and outs of the technology. Blockchain is normally…