Smart contracts and international arbitration: friends or foes?
2018 Investment Arbitration Outlook Uría Menéndez, n.º 4
In the midst of the 2008 financial crisis, an anonymous person or a group of people called Satoshi Nakamoto published a white paper called “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”. This white paper did not create the concept of blockchain, but it can be considered to have been its iconic debut. Bitcoin presented a novel way to transfer money from one part of the world to another in a matter of minutes, without intermediaries -costing next to nothing in fees-, and safer than traditional means -i.e., wire transfers-. The true success behind Bitcoin is the use of blockchain technology, which is now not only being applied to cryptocurrencies but also to virtually every industry in the world.