Authentication Via Blockchain Technology

A block chain is a transaction database shared by all nodes participating in a system based on the Bitcoin protocol. A full copy of a currency’s block chain contains every transaction ever executed in the currency. With this information, one can find out how much value belonged to each address at any point in history.  

Every block contains a hash of the previous block. This has the effect of creating a chain of blocks from the genesis block to the current block. Each block is guaranteed to come after the previous block chronologically because the previous block’s hash would otherwise not be known. Each block is also computationally impractical to modify once it has been in the chain for a while because every block after it would also have to be regenerated. These properties are what make double-spending of bitcoins very difficult. The block chain is the main innovation of Bitcoin.

According to Joseph Wright’s article, Blockchain Technology Underpinning Bitcoin Used to Authenticate Documents, Digital Art, “[t]he blockchain offers a promising solutions for document authentication in legal disputes and for preventing digital art forgeries.” But can the blockchain technology meet the authentication requirements of the Federal Rules of Evidence? I spoke with Wright about this issue, and part of our discussion is included in the article, which is available here  Download Blockchain Article. This article is reproduced with permission from Electronic Commerce & Law Report, 19 ECLR 1400 (Oct. 29, 2014). Copyright 2014 by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. (800-372-1033)http://www.bna.com.

-CM