Blockchain and cryptocurrencies (including bitcoin) have garnered significant attention in legal scholarship over the last few years, mirroring and to some extent anticipating on the public debate over the impact of blockchain technology on the new world economic landscape and the adequate level of regulatory response to such impact – Is a cryptocurrency taxable income or property (the IRS thinks so)?  Is it an asset subject to lien or attachment (courts are starting to think so)?  Is it an investment contract (security) susceptible to make initial coin offerings (ICOs) subject to securities regulation (the SEC thinks so)?  Or perhaps a commodity (the CFTC thinks so)?

When it comes to arbitration, the literature (including on this blog, here, here, here, here, here, here and here) largely focuses on how the technology is going to change the way disputes are settled, i.e., how it will revolutionise the ADR game, either by boosting Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) or by altogether substituting smart contract dispute resolution mechanisms to arbitration as we know and practice it.  In other words, what blockchain can do for arbitration.

Of equal interest, but much less in the spotlight, is what arbitration can do for blockchain.  In particular, we submit that within the next few years, blockchain technology and cryptocurrency industries will become an increasingly active playing field for investment arbitration.  Blockchain technology and crypto industries are therefore arguably set to replace solar and renewable energy ventures as the new frontier of investment arbitration.

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