Blockchain and the Law Conference @ Vanderbilt

Photo Credit to Caitlin Moon.  The topic Jon and I presented was The Tension that Needs Attention: How Distributed is a Private 'Blockchain' Network, Really? April 7, 2017

The Blockchain and the Law Conference at Vanderbilt University (blockchainvls.com) was a tremendous success.  The picture above is ironic--although we spoke on a tremendously important and profound topic, the amount we learned is far greater than what we contributed.  We got the meet other startups with concrete use cases for blockchain applications, many of which touch on intellectual property dissemination and management.  It was a great conference for filtering out the hype and focusing on what's really happening on the ground right here, right now.

Many, many thanks to Larry Bridgesmith and Caitlin Moon for putting together this much-needed consortium.  We are enthralled by BTC Media's first magazine issue of Distributed. I'd have killed to have that as a resource when I was first diving into the blockchain technology space over a year ago.  I'm processing so much from the conference that I'm having several "aha" moments every day regarding the practical potential of blockchain technologies.

Wake Forest School of Law asked us to teach a course this coming semester about how tech is transforming the practice of the law.  We are taking up the responsibility; our students will be very lucky to be so closely connected with the world experts in the blockchain & law space.  It'll be a course on the bleeding-edge of technology.  We hope to whet the students' critical analyses of the intersections of law and technology.

Oh, by the way, Nashville is awesome.  Larry was right--Nashville in the Spring is not to be missed.  Perhaps because we were enjoying ourselves so much, we forgot to take pictures!  Check out the live blues and alt-rock music at Printer's Alley in downtown Nashville.