Bitcoin & Blockchain Technology:

Why Lawyers Should Care@davidsilvasmith@pamelawjd

Do you like your bank?

Ever been charged a bank fee?

Banks charged customers $2.5 billion in

overdraft feesin the first 3 months of this year!

*Source: http://money.cnn.com/2015/05/27/investing/overdraft-fees-over-1-billion-big-banks/

Other IssuesMonthly Service fees

ATM fees overdraft fees

minimum balance fees check fees

low interest rates poor customer service

withdrawal limits slow moving electronic money

WTF?banks reordering transactions to charge fees

improper foreclosures The 2008 bailout ($16 trillion)

can’t get your money can’t use your money

bank errors scams

*Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/traceygreenstein/2011/09/20/the-feds-16-trillion-bailouts-under-reported/

Can something be better?

Do we need banks?

@davidsilvasmith show me #bitcoin

So What?Venmo, Google Wallet, Facebook, etc. do that - right?

One is an illusion…

Isn’t bitcoin a scam?

Paul Krugman"The growth of the Internet will slow drastically, as the flaw in

'Metcalfe's law'–which states that the number of potential connections in a network is proportional to the square of the number of participants–becomes apparent: most people have nothing to say to each other! By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet's

impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine's."

*Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/paul-krugman-responds-to-internet-quote-2013-12

What do you think?Bill Gates

Richard BransonEric Schmidt

Marc AndreessenAl Gore

Paul BucheitJulian AssangeReid Hoffman

Nas50 Cent

Winklevoss TwinsBill Miller

Warren BuffettPaul KrugmanJoe Manchin

Alan GreenspanPeter Schiff

Hikmet Ersek?Jamie Dimon?

What is bitcoin?

Gold + emailLow Cost

Empowering Safe

Transparent Programmable

Rare Fast

What is the blockchain?

Block 2

It is a ledger

Block 1

Block 2

Block 3

Block 4Transaction 1

Transaction 2

Transaction 3

Transaction n

Blocks are minedMiners get block reward and transaction fees

It is a distributed ledger

So What?Nearly indestructible

Irreversible Globally Accessible

Why Lawyers Should Care