Cryptoregulation

Kevin Werbach, Associate Professor of Legal Studies & Business Ethics, is the faculty member responsible for leading the Cryptoregulation Pillar of the Carol and Lawrence Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research.  This pillar addresses legal and ethical issues in the fast-developing world of cryptocurrencies, distributed ledgers, and blockchain technology. The Zicklin Center provides a neutral forum to connect regulators and the private sector in these emerging areas. Through a combination of research and meetings, it promotes regulatory and governance best practices for smart contracts, token sales, decentralized applications, and related activities.

Research Papers

SUBJECT AREA PUBLICATIONS BY FACULTY

Kevin Werbach , Trust, But Verify: Why the Blockchain Needs the Law, 32 BERKELEY TECHNOLOGY LAW JOURNAL __ (forthcoming 2018).

Kevin Werbach , A NEW ARCHITECTURE OF TRUST: LAW, GOVERNANCE, AND THE BLOCKCHAIN (MIT Press, forthcoming 2018).

Kevin Werbach, Contracts Ex Machina, 67 DUKE LAW JOURNAL 101 (2017) (with Nicolas Cornell).

Events

April 21, 2017

Big Data Law & Ethics Colloquium

Wharton hosted the fourth annual research colloquium for business law scholars focused on the legal and ethical dimensions of big data and business analytics. Researchers presented papers on algorithmic discrimination, government use of data analytics, worker surveillance, interpretation of machine learning models, and biometric data collection, among other topics.

September 15-17, 2017

WhartonReg@Tech: Perspectives on Regulatory Approaches to Token Offerings

The Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania hosted a two-day invitation-only meeting on the regulation, self-regulation, and co-regulation of token offerings from a multi-jurisdictional perspective. At this inaugural event of the RegTech@Wharton series, a group of regulators, academics, attorneys, issuers, and investors  discussed potential approaches to token offerings and similar transactions.

November 17-19, 2017

After the Digital Tornado: Networks, Algorithms, Humanity

Many of the contemporary technology trends with the greatest significance for the economy and for public policy—Internet of Things, Big Data, Platform Economy, Blockchain, and Algorithmic Society—should be seen as manifestations of this larger phenomenon. Growing tensions around governance, innovation, surveillance, competition, consumer/worker protection, privacy, and discrimination are best understood within a broader frame. The algorithmic networked world poses deep questions about power, freedom, fairness, and human agency. Conference sponsored by the Legal Studies & Business Ethics Department

January 26, 2018

First Annual Works in Progress Program on Blockchains and the Law

Location:  Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, New York, NY
Conference sponsored by the Cardozo School of Law Blockchain Project. Duke University’s Center on Law and Technology, and the Department of Legal Studies and Business Ethics at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

March 9, 2018

WhartonReg@Tech Workshop: Perspectives on Regulatory Approaches to Token Offerings

The Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania will host an invitation‐only meeting on the regulation, self‐regulation, and co‐regulation of cryptocurrency token offerings and related activities from a multi‐jurisdictional perspective. This is the second event in the Wharton Reg@Tech series, which brings together an exclusive group of regulators, academics, attorneys, issuers, advisors, and investors.