Blockchain Neutrality

Cyber Alliance Speaker Series

Speaker:
Sam Weinstein, Assistant Professor, Cardozo School of Law, University of California-Berkeley

When:
Wednesday, March 4, 2020
3:30pm – 5:00pm
(Light refreshments before and after the presentation)

Where:
Boston University, School of Law, 765 Commonwealth Ave, 15th Floor Faculty Lounge

Abstract: Blockchain technology is transforming how markets work, and their disruptive potential threatens Wall Street and Silicon Valley venture, capitalists. How blockchain technology is regulated will determine whether it encourages or inhibits competition. Some blockchain applications present serious fraud and systemic risks, complicating regulation.

This Cyber Alliance talk, featuring Cardozo Law Assistant Prof. Sam Weinstein, will explore the antitrust and competition policy challenges blockchain presents and will propose a regulatory strategy modeled on Internet regulation and net neutrality principles. Prof. Weinstein’s article, “Blockchain Neutrality,” contends that financial regulators should promote blockchain competition—and the resulting market decentralization—except in cases where specific applications are shown to harm consumers or threaten systemic safety. He concludes that this approach will serve not only antitrust goals of lowering prices and promoting innovation, but also might achieve broader reform by reducing the power and influence of the biggest financial institutions.

Bio: Sam Weinstein is an assistant professor of law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where he teaches Antitrust, Corporations, and Contracts. He joined Cardozo from the U.C. Berkeley School of Law, where from 2015-17 he was a fellow at the Berkeley Center for Law, Business and the Economy. Before that, Weinstein was an attorney in the Legal Policy Section of the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and served as Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Division. Professor Weinstein began his career as a litigator at Munger, Tolles & Olson in San Francisco, after serving as a law clerk to Judge Edward R. Becker of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. He is a graduate of Haverford College and received both his J.D and Ph.D. in U.S. history from U.C. Berkeley. His research interests include antitrust, financial regulation, corporate law, and the history of the regulatory state.