MIT Legal Forum 2017: The Strengths and Weaknesses of Blockchain

Recently, blockchain has been discussed in a way that makes it seem like the solution to all of the problems lawyers didn’t even know they had. In reality, blockchain will help with a lot of issues, but there are also problems it won’t solve and we’re still in the early stages in its development. In this report from On The Road, host Trent Carlyle talks to Christian Smith about what blockchain is and what problems it does and doesn’t solve. They discuss the potential downfalls of blockchain, like cost and lack of privacy, and caution against falling for scams that target those who don’t fully understand what blockchain is.

Christian Smith is the technical manager at MIT Sociotechnical Systems Research Center (SSRC) and the founder of Anvil Research.