Presented at Michigan State University College of Law Center for Legal Services Innovation

1. Bitcoin & Blockchain Technology:
Why Lawyers Should Care
@davidsilvasmith@pamelawjd

2. Do you like your bank?

3. Ever been charged a
bank fee?

4. Banks charged customers
$2.5 billion in
overdraft fees
in the first 3 months of this year!
*Source: http://money.cnn.com/2015/05/27/investing/overdraft-fees-over-1-billion-big-banks/

5. Other Issues
Monthly Service fees
ATM fees
overdraft fees
minimum balance fees
check fees
low interest rates
poor customer service
withdrawal limits
slow moving electronic money

6. 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/

7. Can something be
better?

8. Do we need banks?

9. @davidsilvasmith
show me #bitcoin

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

11. One is an illusion…

12. Isn’t bitcoin a scam?

13. 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

14. What do you think?
Bill Gates
Richard Branson
Eric Schmidt
Marc Andreessen
Al Gore
Paul Bucheit
Julian Assange
Reid Hoffman
Nas
50 Cent
Winklevoss Twins
Bill Miller
Warren Buffett
Paul Krugman
Joe Manchin
Alan Greenspan
Peter Schiff
Hikmet Ersek?
Jamie Dimon?

15. What is bitcoin?

16. Gold + email
Low Cost
Empowering
Safe
Transparent
Programmable
Rare
Fast

17. What is the
blockchain?

18. Block 2
It is a ledger
Block 1
Block 2
Block 3
Block 4
Transaction 1
Transaction 2
Transaction 3
Transaction n

19. Blocks are mined
Miners get block reward and transaction fees

20. It is a distributed
ledger

21. So What?
Nearly indestructible
Irreversible
Globally Accessible

22. Why Lawyers Should
Care