Cryptocurrencies: A Threat to the Enforcement of Compensation Awards?
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Historically, land ownership has been the center of how humans accrued riches, reaching heights of constitutional protection. With the introduction of "I.OU.'s" and legal tenders, humans found new ways to interact and create the modern economy. The introduction of digital assets like Bitcoin has changed how people manage and store wealth. These decentralized and mostly anonymous practices of wealth relocation could threaten the judicial system when enforcing compensation awards.
Blockchain technology is the driving force behind all crypto assets. This tech allows people to locate the crypto wallet containing the assets and the corresponding private key to gain access to a cryptocurrency. You cannot remove the funds from a wallet without a private key. However, unlike land, tangible property, blockchain technology makes cryptocurrencies nearly impossible to counterfeit, double-spend, and seize.
Two central procedural figures deal with the aftermath of a judgment and the payment of any sum of money the courts ordered. First, a procedural figure gives a plaintiff the option to ask the court to freeze all of a defendant's assets before a case starts. Second, there is the personam coercion post-trial. An in personam action aims to coerce a judgment debtor to pay the sum ordered by the court. Two central procedural figures deal with the aftermath of a judgment and the payment of any sum of money the courts ordered. First, a procedural figure gives a plaintiff the option to ask the court to freeze all of a defendant's assets before a case starts. Second, there is the personam coercion post-trial. An in personam action aims to coerce a judgment debtor to pay the sum ordered by the court.
The methods of coercion consist of different penalties directed to the person who must comply with the court orders. The ways of coercion can go from monetary fines to jail for failing to comply with court orders. But both types of procedural figures clash with the due process in the US, making them not feasible under the current law.
An asset seizure rests on three presuppositions: knowing what to seize, where the assets are, and who has control of the assets. No matter how coercive or invasive the seizure procedures can be, if you don't know what to seize, the judicial process becomes a futile act.
Tech is causing social relations to change daily, and money is no exception. As these new forms of social interactions continue to shape the world, society needs to keep revising all the regulations it could affect. Cryptocurrency is changing the core of how people can interact with riches, leaving a wave of dysfunctional social procedures and people helpless. In the case of compensation, the real challenge will be to keep track of people and corporations' assets so that the affected person can achieve justice when it's time to pay.
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Source: https://Cryptocurrencymagazine.com/culture/how-civil-justice-reacts-to-Cryptocurrency-custody
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