Very often, even sensationally, we hear that Blockchain will eventually supplant the professional class of notaries worldwide. However, in the medium term, notaries can sleep soundly: to date, there is no notary who has lost his or her job due to to the Blockchain. This does not mean that as of today notarizing a document in Blockchain is useless: there are a variety of documents that do not need to be submitted to a notary but whose certification takes on an important centrality. In fact, the vast majority of agreements between parties and certifications do not require the use of a notary but the difficulty in proving the originality of the document ends up generating disputes. The administrative branch of the sports universe could also benefit from the use of this technology with the notarization of health data, transfers, athlete registrations and budgets.

Hash and timestamp: the origin of notarization

The principle of notarization is guaranteed by the Blockchain through the immutability feature of transactions and its cryptographic functions. Each transaction is identified through a hash, a cryptographic code whose first use is due to military-grade telecommunications. The hash consists of a string of alphanumeric characters whose correspondence is unique: as any letter in a PDF document or a pixel in a photo changes, the hash will also be different. In the case of bitcoin, the hash function is represented by the SHA256 algorithm and has a length of 64 characters. In addition, when a transaction is uploaded to a blockchain, the corresponding timestamp will be present: we could easily find out the exact time and date of uploading the transaction object. According to Article 8-ter of Law 12/2019, which we have already mentioned in other previous articles, it states that “the digital document satisfies the requirement of written form” ergo it will be an evidentiary element with full legal value. Clearly, legal validity is bound to compliance with the requirements established by AgID (Agency for Digital Italy).

Health data, budgets and memberships: notarization applied to sports

Health data of athletes and GDPR

One of the most recent cases related to time and document integrity certification was the one involving former world number 1 Novak Djokovic and Australian sports and state institutions. The dispute was initially based on the date on which the former world number one tested positive for Covid19 and which consequently would have made him exempt from mandatory vaccination. Should the document have been notarized in Blockchain, it would have been easy to trace the date and time of upload through the timestamp. Staying within the athletes’ health data framework, we can infer that Blockchain could come in handy for GDPR compliance. This is because documents that are enrolled in a blockchain are easily traceable, even without having access to the content of the document, making the job easier for enforcement agencies. This means that we really could control the use of our data by stakeholders and whether it is being passed on to unauthorized third parties. Blockchain and notarization applied to athletes’ health data could also prove useful in the fight against doping. In fact, a report prepared by PwC shows that the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) is conducting a pilot project for the use of Blockchain technology in countering doping.

Budgets and notarization

The use of notarization on Blockchain could be applied to the financial and economic parts for the management of a professional club. A budget that is notarized becomes searchable by anyone, transparent and immutable. It allows all cash inflows and outflows to be tracked, offering an overview of the economic status to suppliers, sponsors and fans. In the context of the now-popular Financial Fair Play (FFP), notarization could play a crucial role in avoiding fictitious sponsorships and the increasingly common phenomenon of inflated capital gains. Sometimes sports clubs are also used for money laundering from their presidents’ main companies, again the use of Blockchain could be a not insignificant obstacle to money laundering.

Notarization for memberships and transfers

Notarization could also be applied to memberships. In fact, very often it is difficult to define the exact figures of a transfer, hence a general lack of transparency and the difficulty of defining the exact amount of money to be paid to the club-vendor based on the percentage on resale. Federations would also be facilitated by the use of notarization for transfers: the process for contract deposition would be un-bureaucratized; storage would become simpler; and the time for compliance checks would be significantly decreased.

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As defined by Wikipedia, being ESG compliant means implementing the concept of sustainable development to financial activity by making it sustainable finance. As the acronym ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) suggests, sustainability is not understood to be limited to the environment, although it has been the pivotal principle behind the movement. To date, companies that most respect ESG parameters have an advantage in raising public and private investment. The world of sports, mainly in the event and sports facility sectors, is also beginning to monitor ESG factors, aligning itself with the European vision contained in Agenda 2030. During Cop26 in Glasgow, the major players in the sports scene set themselves very ambitious goals: halving emissions by 2030 and zero by 2040, a more challenging target than the EU target of zero by 2050. The very sport you don’t expect, Formula 1, has launched its Net-Zero Carbon program to zero emissions by 2030.

ESG, sport e infrastructures in Italy 

The issue of environmental sustainability turns out to be intertwined with the issue of infrastructure, and this also happens in sports. It is no coincidence that the 700 million euros available through the PNRR are dedicated to the modernization and construction of sports infrastructure with a view to sustainability. For Italy, the topic of infrastructure turns out to be a sore point, just think that according to a census by the Istituto per il Credito Sportivo, 60 percent of the sports infrastructure in Italy was built before 1980. This leads to a squandering of more than 800 million euros annually as well as significant climate-changing emissions.

The main critical issues: disclosure and measurement of offsets

To date, the main critical issues we find in the sports world with respect to the ESG movement relate to the disclosure and measurement of CO2e offsets. The majority of European soccer clubs do not make their emissions data public, and furthermore, since there is no gold standard for making measurements, the few data available are not entirely reliable. We can take as a reference soccer, the most played sport with the greatest impact on GDP in Europe, and research conducted by Standard Ethics, which established a European Football Index on sustainability based on a nine-grade rating.

The research was conducted on the 15 top listed European clubs and from this it emerged that:

• 13% of the companies adopt sustainability-oriented policies and an adequate reporting system;
• 67% of the companies still have a low level of disclosure, although 20% of them have started a path to improve ESG reporting;
• 20% of companies still have unsatisfactory sustainability management.

If we then go to analyze unlisted companies, we see that almost none have an adequate level of disclosure and provide ESG data.

For sports companies, being ESG will also have an important impact on the new generation of fans who are showing increasing awareness of environmental issues.

The relation between Blockchain and ESG

The main features that have made Blockchain the most revolutionary technology of the current decade are now well known: immutability, transparency and speed. While at first Blockchain was considered to be the clear antithesis to environmental sustainability, it is now being recognized as one of the main tools that will be able to revolutionize such an innovative and growing field as ESG. In fact, with the emergence of the new green blockchains and consensus algorithms that are no longer as energy-intensive as those of Bitcoin, projects created to facilitate the buying and selling of Carbon Credits are beginning to flourish. The Carbon Credit market, previously the preserve exclusively of large, publicly traded multinational corporations, with the use of tokenization turns out to be accessible to SMEs and, consequently, to for-profit sports clubs as well. Both Microsoft and the Emirate of Dubai have relied on the purchase of carbon credits using blockchain to achieve carbon-free status.

But how does the process of tokenizing carbon credits work?

• A company implements soil carbon sequestration initiatives i.e., ground storage of CO2e present in the atmosphere;
• For every ton of CO2e stored on the ground it emits a carbon credit which can be tokenized;
• The buyer interested in achieving carbon-free status purchases the equivalent of the tons of CO2e released into the atmosphere in carbon credits.

Transparency and traceability

The role of Blockchain can also be instrumental in the proper measurement of emissions and accessibility of data consultation. The purchase and sale of carbon credits that took place on Blockchain turns out to be easily searchable and from there one could trace the emissions of the respective company by knowing the address (or public key) of the respective wallet.

In addition, the trustworthiness of the data being notarized on Blockchain will be increasingly enhanced by its combined use with Internet of Things technology: interconnected objects that can process and transmit data. Through oracles, these objects could perform a data collection activity and notarize it on Blockchain, making measurements standardized and reliable.

That of the reliability of measurements is a key issue for the virtuous development of the ESG movement. In the world of sporting events, the case of the World Cup in Qatar is emblematic. According to the NGO Carbon Market Watch, the emissions generated by the top national competition will be 3.6 million tons, almost doubling the last edition held in Russia, which reached 2 million tons. Emissions reported by the Gulf Research and Development Organization are only 1.8 million, half of those highlighted in the report. Offsetting is supposed to take place through two projects (developed in Turkey, among others), but these take just over 133 thousand tons, 7.6 percent of emissions, out of the atmosphere. This shows that even the world of sports, which is supposed to promote correct values, is not immune to propaganda and the now widespread phenomenon of greenwashing.

Sources

• https://www.economymagazine.it/il-mondo-dello-sport-e-i-fattori-esg-quanto-e-sostenibile-il-calcio/
• https://www.linkiesta.it/2022/07/mondiali-calcio-qatar-2022-emissioni-impatto-ambientale/
• https://www.lanuovaecologia.it/stadi-italia-riqualificazione/
• https://www.repubblica.it/green-and-blue/dossier/cop26/2021/11/04/news/cop26_lo_sport_per_il_clima_zero_emissioni_entro_il_2040_serve_un_gioco_di_squadra-324997431/
• https://www.esg360.it/digital-for-esg/crediti-di-carbonio-e-blockchain-la-nuova-frontiera-delle-criptovalute-green-per-la-sostenibilita-del-business/

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Blockchain and travelers

When organizing a trip, there is an exchange of personal information of the customer, data related to different means of transportation (flights, trains, ferries), distinctive elements of accommodations. Blockchain would make it possible to record all of this information within a distributed ledger, thus enabling the traceability of all transactions and preventing the loss of information and data due to deletions or hacker attacks.
Also thanks to Blockchain, hotels and transportation agencies could record customer data on large databases, promoting the security of the information obtained through the vigilant control exercised by the platform.
The above, in addition to secure sharing of personal data, also applies to financial transactions. In the tourism sector, protecting the security of agreements and simplifying exchanges between different players can be a great advantage both because it reduces commission costs and saves time during booking.
Through distributed ledgers, payments can be made using banking services, which immediately become more secure, or by exchanging cryptocurrencies.
In long lines due to passenger recognition and identification operations, the combined use of Blockchain and artificial intelligence could easily enable the introduction of fingerprint or rètina scanning, and greatly shorten the time and more securely locate information about the traveler. In addition, for customers who travel frequently, digitizing and turning loyalty points into tokens would make it easier for them to manage their rewards and benefits. And again, the ability to track and monitor the movement of one’s luggage is a guarantee to avoid the loss of personal belongings during travel, or the well-known inconveniences described by bewildered travelers who face the odyssey of retrieving misdirected or lost luggage altogether in distant countries.

La Blockchain and airline flights

To stick to pressing issues, airlines in recent times have suffered many staff strikes due to the failure to reinstate employees fired during the pandemic.
Blockchain can ensure that flight conditions are monitored and simplify refunds if travel is lost. In this way, customers can be assured that they will not lose their money.
But given that in most cases the real risk is missed departure, Blockchain could, through a data sharing and industry interchange agreement, redirect the traveler in real time to the most cost-effective and reliable flight at another airline.
Imagine the case of a sportsman or conductor engaged in a performance that would be prejudiced by their absence. For these and many similar professionals, it is the safety of departure that is the real goal. Suffice it to say that British theaters and concert institutions stipulate in their contracts with contracted artists that they must be on British soil the night before the events they will be performing. It is easy to see that blockchain can make a decisive contribution to the process toward safety and peace of mind for millions of the world’s citizens whose business is closely linked to the transportation sector.

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What links dApps to the Blockchain is a strong interconnectedness. dApps leverage Blockchain platforms and their distributed network, but at the same time a truly decentralized Blockchain project can only be based on a dApp.
Traditional app developers in order to be able to offer optimized products and succeed in promoting them have to pay high fees to marketplaces such as Google Play Store or Apple Store. The payment system is also facilitated and easily integrated into the apps in the aforementioned centralized marketplaces. However, the crypto economy has begun to disrupt this paradigm: dApps leverage the native Blockchain system for asset transfer, this allows them to be able to integrate payments without having to depend on any marketplace.
Another advantage offered by dApps is the ability to access the platform by linking to one’s digital asset wallet: this means fewer credentials to remember and less data to transfer to register. Finally, all data is distributed among the various nodes of the Blockchain and does not reside in a specific server, making it almost impervious to cyber attacks and data fraud. The parent platform of dApps was Ethereum‘s, through the use of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), the first to enable the use of Smart Contracts.

The benefits of decentralization

The decentralization on which dApps are founded gives rise to advantages that until yesterday were unthinkable on traditional apps. Everything that takes place within dApps is governed by Smart Contracts and there is no authority that can succeed in changing what has taken place within them. This is due to the property of immutability inherent in Blockchain technology. Assets that are purchased on a dApp can easily be moved to its connected wallet or to another wallet that supports the tokens on the dApp and, through the wallets, to another platform.
This was impractical on centralized dApps.
Interoperability amongst different platforms can only be guaranteed by the Blockchain, many of the future initiatives will be based on this principle and will be one of the main reasons to lean toward implementing a project using this technology. The user who purchases an asset on a dApp will be able to have knowledge of the meaning of digital ownership.

Early uses of decentralized apps

As we know Blockchain has its roots in the financial market. The first dApps were developed to give rise to the so-called DEX i.e. Decentralized Exchanges. Even today, the largest volumes of dApps, in terms of economics and number of users, are registered on decentralized exchanges. Among the most famous are Uniswap, which through a mathematical formula linked to a Smart Contract gives birth to an Automated Market Maker (AMM), whose primary task is to set the price of assets in real time through oracles. DEXs are widely used mainly for two reasons: first, to avoid the KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure that requires sensitive user data, now mandatory for centralized exchanges (CEXs) such as Binance or Coinbase; second, to have access to financial products restricted by CEXs in some countries, such as derivatives in Italy.

dApps and sports: in which segment will they be able to be used?

As mentioned before, dApps first found application in Decentralized Finance (DeFi) platforms. The scope of sports betting does not differ much from decentralized finance: it is possible to bet on one of the teams to win, as if they were two assets with two different Liquidity Pools (LPs). An oracle activates the call function of the Smart Contract based on the final result determines the winning team, based on the stake invested on the winning team the profits paid from the liquidity pool of the losing team or player will be distributed.
One of the most interesting projects, representing a hybrid of DeFi and Sport Betting, is that of ScoutX, a platform based on Polygon’s blockchain. To date, it is possible to bet and earn by predicting the future earnings of tennis players, again the operation will be governed by an Automated Market Maker activated by an oracle, as is the case with decentralized exchanges. The project to date is limited to tennis but is set to reach many other sports by 2022. This new frontier of Sports Betting proposes a reimagining of the platform with the role of the counter setting the odds for the matches in the schedule. With the use of dApps, the platform acts only as an intermediary, creating a Peer-to-peer link and earning from the commissions generated from the trades made.

dApp, universal or limited use?

dApps represent the technological substrate that enables the full functionality and exploitation of the features that are made available by Blockchain technology. However, the use of dApps cannot universally replace that of centralized apps. In cases where the identity of a user needs to be verified, the data will need to be stored in a centralized database that can be accessed by a central authority.
Everything executed on dApps is processed through transaction approval; a large number of transactions can end up congesting the network by slowing down the execution of operations on the dApp. Another limitation of dApps may be the difficulty of offering the same quality standards for user experience that are offered by traditional centralized apps. For some users, who have no other experience in the Blockchain world, it may be difficult to configure the various tools they may need to securely interact with the Blockchain.

Thus, dApps also have limitations and disadvantages: one must be aware of how they work to be able to define when their use is useful and when it is a limitation. Certainly they can be useful platforms for easily integrating Smart Contracts that enable all the various transactions. In addition, it will be possible to avoid give one’s data if the activity performed does not make it necessary, opting for a dApp rather than a centralized app.

Sources:

• https://ethereum.org/it/developers/docs/dapps/
• https://medium.com/visionary-hub/building-a-sport-betting-dapp-d5f1048ba524

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Among the most polluting Blockchains, that is, those that require huge amounts of energy, and consequently produce waste and scrap, are Ethereum and Bitcoin. For these platforms, energy consumption is so high that it can be equated with the needs of large sovereign countries such as Argentina. According to studies by the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, Bitcoin is also a largely polluting cryptocurrency.

Blockchain’s strong environmental impact may discourage its momentum for deployment because of heavy, sometimes fierce criticism from environmentalists and citizens. Of course, a widespread attitude of preemptive hostility, motivated by the corporate fear, of banks and old institutions operating in credit, of losing ground and economic power, must be taken into account throughout this process of renewal of global finance. However with a view to following the suggestions of sound constructive criticism, there are many solutions geared toward defending the environment and protecting the planet. One of the most direct and practically counter-trend is to contribute to the creation of green lungs in the areas surrounding computing centers; in parallel with this attempt to remedy the ecological damage with concrete facts, there should be a determined commitment to research, study and use of new computing processes that require less energy expenditure thus limiting damage to nature and ecosystems to a minimum.

The green Blockchain

More focused on environmental impact is Algorand, which has reached the level of zero emissions.
Many other platforms are using Algorand as a model to follow in moving toward reducing consumption. We are finally beginning to talk, more and more convincingly, about green Blockchain. Even principled detractors of the new frontier are beginning to take note of the seriousness of the Blockchain pioneers’ approach to the planet’s problem.
Other environmentally conscious platforms include Solana, Polkadot, and Cardano.
These distributed ledgers, in addition to having contained emissions and energy consumption, saw crypto buying increase in 2021, demonstrating that care for the environment is a value perceived as fundamental by investors and users.
The goals of these platforms are sustainability, affordability, and scalability. A high number of transactions per second can be guaranteed with low costs and modest energy use.

Towards the Proof of History

A crucial point in the area of sustainability is the choice between the Proof of Stake and Proof of Work systems.
In PoW, validation of transactions is done by solving complex mathematical problems and using algorithms. The computers, dedicated to solving such algorithms, are of enormous size and are powered by electricity, as well as having the need to keep the temperature constant with air cooling systems. In the PoS system, on the other hand, a number of Blockchain users are randomly chosen, from which blocks are minted instead of extracting new ones. This process is much more sustainable and less polluting, as the complex calculations do not have to be solved and thus not as much energy is used.
In the context of defending transaction security, it should be emphasized that the PoS validation method, although it involves low energy consumption, is no less reliable than PoW; on the contrary, it equally guarantees the security of the distributed ledger.

The latest development in technology has led to the realization of Proof of History, a procedure that relies on the creation of historical records aimed at proving that, at a specific time, a specific event occurred. This methodology, made famous by Blockchain Solana, drastically reduces the time of mining processes, i.e., validation of the transaction or exchange. For this reason it is extremely lightweight and scalable.

Users are becoming increasingly environmentally conscious, which is why it is essential for platforms to research new strategies for containing energy requirements.

Also ChainOn, in the same vein as described above, is also constantly working to protect environmental sustainability by working in the direction of reducing energy consumption related to its private Blockchain and digital systems.

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The types of Blockchain are divided into two major groups: permissioned and permissionless.

Permissioned and permissionless Blockachain

Permissioned Blockchain are private networks, which require permission from a central node to access. They are usually preferred by established corporate structures, which need to exert centralized control over users. Permissioned also provide for a rigidly circumscribed user base qualitatively and numerically.
Permissionless types, in contrast, are public and access is granted to all who wish to subscribe. In this case, the large spread of users, which would seem to threaten the need for security, finds in the parcellation of control its best asset. Simply put, everyone controls everything. Better yet, total visibility is the best possible deterrent against any attempt at illegality or impropriety.

Interest in Blockchain is growing exponentially, and the increase in numbers is leading to a gradual differentiation and characterization of increasingly subtle specializations. Some of the most interesting distributed platforms have their roots in the origins of Blockchain, such as Bitcoin, while others are much more recent.

The 10 Blockchain that have changed the world

1. Ethereum was created in 2013 and is one of the oldest Blockchains. The main feature of this platform is the ability to enter into Smart Contracts in addition to allowing users to develop financial apps, decentralized marketplaces and more. To date, this platform is one of the largest and best known in the world;
2. IBM Blockchain is a platform that tends to promote transparency in economic exchanges. Through a user-friendly interface, it facilitates user access and simplifies complex transactions. The platform can also be used by users to develop their own network within the Blockchain;
3. Chainanalysis KYT. The acronym KYT stands for “Know Your Transaction”: in fact, the platform allows users, through an easy-to-use interface, to personally monitor transactions; 
4. Tron is capable of carrying out thousands of transactions per second, thanks to its scalability, while continuing to guarantee the security of exchanges. Scalability gives Tron immediate elasticity and adaptability in the case of major variations in the volume and type of transactions carried out. Currently among the most widely used, it is one of the fastest growing platforms. This expansion is in large part due to the ability to conduct transactions at no additional cost;
5. Stellar allows the exchange of different currencies such as dollars, Bitcoin, pesos and others, which is why it is widely used by banks. This Blockchain ensures transparency and keeps the network constantly updated;
6. MultiChain enables the creation of customized Blockchain, public or private. It can be considered a symbol of creative democracy. Rules and operations are devised and modified without limits. The database can hold a huge amount of data. The blockchain can be modified until the multichain-util text is uploaded: once the operation of the platform is established, no more changes can be made;
7. Eos can be considered a cross between Bitcoin and Ethereum because it supports several features of both. This platform also allows the creation of numerous dapps (decentralized applications) totally left to the free initiative of the adherents and guarantees security and low costs to the transactions that are carried out on it;
8. Hyperledger Fabric as the name suggests, aims to provide the necessary tools for software creation, prioritizing the need for control through the structural enhancement of the ledger, the shared register. A special feature of this chain is the substantial differentiation between users and validators. There is also a special clause for the use of chaincodes, called deploy and invoke, thanks to which the user can use and fix with repetition his personal access code. This platform, based on the IBM Blockchain has the ability to transform the structure of business and to connect different networks, such as enterprise networks, to collaborate together and be connected;
9. Klaytn has an architecture suitable for different types of networks, this feature allows it to operate in different ways depending on the services being offered, and any online operation can be completed through this platform. It basically works like Facebook’s Libra reta, which has now become Diem and is anchored to a stablecoin, giving rise to Diemdollar. Similarly, Klaytn has overcome the banks’ distrust of it by creating a constantly updated dollar relationship, much to the relief of users worried about the threat of investment volatility;
10. Ripple provides faster, transparent and cheaper solutions than other Blockchains, from a business perspective. This tool is mainly used for buying crypto, facilitating instant payments and generating new revenue given the low capital required to access it. The Ripple label, more correctly referred to as the Ripple Transaction Protocol, enables the immediate transfer of large investments quickly and in any currency, with potential for rapid expansion on a global scale.

These are just a few of the many registers distributed within the reach of users. Any platform must be understood and studied in depth to discover and analyze all its positive and negative aspects. The ability to trade online quickly and easily appeals to many, but it is essential to know in depth the tools one uses.

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Smart Contracts in blockchain come into being thanks to the Ethereum platform, which allows through these to distribute revenue as a result of the sale of an NFT, to create other tokens starting from the platform itself, as well as to put in place an agreement with legal validity between the parties.

Smart Contract: the regulatory situation in Italy

Do Smart Contracts have legal validity? Is there a regulation in our legal system?

Italy in this case moved ahead of other European countries and in February 2019, with the conversion law of the simplification decree 135/2018, formulated a definition of Smart Contract by placing discriminants between those that aspire to legal value and those that cannot hold it. An excerpt from the said decree reads:

“A ‘smart contract’ is defined as a computer program that operates on Technologies based on distributed registers and whose execution automatically binds two or more parties based on effects predefined by them.” 

The standards also define that in order to meet the requirement of a written contract form, one needs the prior computer identification of the parties following the process outlined by the Agency for Digital Italy (AgID).

Smart Contract, the neuralgic role of data and oracles

Smart Contracts extrude their usefulness to the fullest by having the calling function perform operations automatically. In order for this to happen, each Smart Contract must be linked to oracles, whose name might call to mind something mystical, but which essentially turn out to be programs that collect and process data.
The role of the latter is of paramount importance; untrue data transmitted by an oracle would undermine the proper functioning of Smart Contracts, at which point legal disputes would eventually escalate, triggering the opposite effect of what these tools were born to do. The report “Smart Contracts and the Digital Single Market Through the Lens of a “Law + Technology Approach” presented to the European Commission by Thibault Schrepel suggests incentivizing the use of reliable oracles.

The task of the legislature is to introduce a regulatory framework without burdening these tools with excessive red tape that would debase the use of Smart Contracts from meaning. Introducing and promoting Smart Contract standards according to scope, translating contract law into computer language are other interesting proposals introduced in Schrepel’s report. Proper regulation would allow Smart Contracts to relieve ordinary justice from resolving several disputes. A case in point is that of Etherisc, an insurance protocol that through an oracle tracks flight takeoff and landing times and provides reimbursement to customers in case of delays.

Smart Contract: the regulatory situation in the EU and the US

The European Parliament has passed a resolution called the Blockchain Strategy to direct the work of the Commission. The goal is to create a shared pan-European legal framework that gives legal certainty to Smart Contracts in all European states.
The transnational characteristics of blockchain, and therefore also of Smart Contracts, require shared rules to promote the use of these tools. The resolution openly states that the aim of the European Commission’s work should be to avoid fragmentation of the regulatory framework.
The European Blockchain Services Institute (EBSI), introduced in 2021, is to be the entity that, with technical and legal awareness, will be tasked with building its own blockchain that connects the states, fostering interoperability among the continent’s business actors. In Europe, only Malta has given a legal definition of Smart Contracts, calling them Innovative Technology Arrangements. Currently, Smart Contracts entered into between two parties belonging to two different countries must rely on the EU Rome I Regulation to establish jurisdiction.

Another regulatory framework to consider is that of the US. Notoriously, North American technological innovations influence trends on the Old Continent and so do the resulting regulatory solutions. Obviously, the U.S. enjoys a more liberal system, and the various states enjoy broad regulatory autonomy. In 2018, Tennessee, through Senate Bill No. 1662, enshrined the legal validity of Smart Contracts with the following rationale: “it is not possible to deny legal effectiveness to a contract just because it is executed through a smart contract.” The same line has been adopted by Arizona, and Wyoming has implemented several laws aimed at promoting blockchain technology in the legal sphere as well.

Regulation as much as possible shared among European states and non-European states, at least among the main trading partners, would make it possible to promote models and solve ex-ante issues that due to the characteristics of Smart Contracts cannot be solved ex-post.

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Speed, effectiveness, transparency

This process, in addition to being time-consuming, requires the use of specialized and technologically competent personnel to avoid the emergence of critical issues related to the misuse of digital tools.
Leveraging distributed records in traditional settings can return enormous benefits in terms of speed, effectiveness, transparency and complexity of performance and services offered.
In a landscape of technological development and growth, the first to benefit from the modernization of obsolete structures related to public administration are the end users of public goods and services, namely citizens.
Today, the process of a bureaucratic file, from initiation to closure, takes an extremely long time and involves a large number of officials who take turns according to the required task.

The Italian Blockchain Service Infrastructure (IBSI)

In the pandemic period, when offices were inevitably closed, the need to make government apparatuses more streamlined and allow access to information directly from home became evident.
To keep up with the times, PA must be able to innovate by moving without delay toward new technologies in a conscious but, at the same time, dynamic way.
With the adoption of blockchain, we enter a new structural paradigm that constitutes a break with the traditional system.
For public administrations, the possibility of ensuring transparency and traceability, through the use of distributed ledgers, is a huge advantage that allows them to win the trust of citizens. The IBSI (Italian Blockchain Service Infrastructure) is an initiative created at the proposal of the Digital Italy Agency and other public administration entities, with the ultimate goal of creating a network capable of enhancing the services made available by PAs.
The public utility platform finally places the citizen at the center by ensuring more agile accessibility to services and communications aimed at him or her.

The citizen master of his own data

The essential features of the blockchain (immutability, traceability and transparency) become solid foundations for building trust among all stakeholders. By increasing information sharing to improve business models, citizens once again become masters of their own data and, like other blockchain nodes, can access and make personal information available in an active rather than passive manner.

The most consistent benefits are found in documentation management. The numerous certificates, both paper and digital, can be entered into the platform, thus avoiding overloading the administration’s servers and allowing each user to access the information he or she needs in an agile and fast way, through digital identity.
The use of blockchain, in fact, guarantees citizens a secure and shared ID, which could facilitate bureaucratic processes and reduce tax evasion and crime.
The digital identity, which contains within it data and information that define the individual, transforms the taxpayer into an active and dynamic user: through passwords and codes, the citizen has access to all the necessary information and can sign, in full and secure autonomy, documents through digital signature.
Today among the most common tools related to digital identity is SPID, or the Public Digital Identity System through which, once a user name and password are obtained, it is possible to access all public administration services from any device (smartphone, tablet or PC). SPID can be activated directly by the citizen already upon reaching the age of majority as long as he or she is in possession of an identity document.
Digital identity and NFTs can ensure the uniqueness of documents and physical and digital assets: any document can be transformed into a token linked to the ID of the natural person, ensuring that the citizen has full control of the documentation related to him or her. With this in mind, one can envision an economy based on the creation of tokens by the PA that are intended to reward deserving citizens by giving rise to a virtuous process that is based on the exchange of NFTs.

Some obstacles, many advantages

The main obstacles, which may stand in the way of this new path of digitization, lie mainly in a jurisprudence that is still embryonic compared to the rapid technological advances, which have allowed the exponential growth of related proceedings. In fact, a legal deficiency and late updating of jurisprudence make it difficult to protect citizens and companies should disputes of a different nature arise.

In conclusion, the benefits brought by the introduction of blockchain in the digitization process of public administration can be summarized in three major blocks:

• Thanks to the principle of transparency and verifiability of information, the risk of manipulation and fraud can be contained;
• Some processes that are traditionally carried out manually by government personnel could be automated, thus reducing both costs and time spent;
• Automation of activities would reduce human error and limit information loss during data management, providing citizens with greater integrity and quality.

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Authors, publishers, blockchain

The many advantages that can be derived from the use of the distributed platform have not escaped the attention of the SIAE, a copyright protection society, which has decided to introduce the use of blockchain in partnership with the U.S.-based company Algorand.
Algorand has created a blockhain platform that lends itself to varied and beneficial use in a variety of areas, including the copyright sector.
NFTs, in this case, become evidence of intellectual property in its digital version and can be traded or sold through transactions that take place on the blockchain.
SIAE has registered on this database both copyrights, which refer to artists, and properties historically intermediated by it, exploiting the form of NFTs that are linked to authors’ accounts.
For the time being, the test bed has featured music assets as protagonists, but in the future it is not ruled out expanding the audience to other artistic content such as paintings, stage sets, and plays.
Among other advantages, the maximum transparency that the blockchain guarantees should not be underestimated: since everything is recorded in a Distributed Ledger, accessible to all nodes, authors become the sole masters of monitoring and managing their creations, while other participants in the network can oversee the respect of ownership. Obviously, the use of cryptocurrencies, or other digital currencies as a mode of payment, would make the management of economic exchanges even faster.

Smart contracts and the copyright of complex works

Distributed records are also a solution to complex content management.
In fact, they offer the possibility of digitizing data, thus avoiding the great confusion due to the large number and complex variety of content and authors, for example, registered with the SIAE.
When it comes to works of authorship, people often underestimate the number of participants who make the pieces of the mosaic a complete and meaningful picture.
Consider, for example, the production of a film in which every actor, from the protagonist to the extras, is crucial and functional to achieving an end result.
In the rights industry, all those who have taken part in the creation of a work must be protected, and through registration on the code string (hash), it is possible to ensure that everyone is acknowledged for their contribution, as long as it is determined by the contract.
For example, every time a film is reproduced, even years after its first release, all those who appear in the video must be compensated according to the image right. For this reason, contracts are drawn up that ensure that actors, for a specific period of time, are paid financial compensation, so-called royalties, proportional to the part played and the success of the film.
With this in mind, smart contracts could be useful in establishing the necessary and most advantageous conditions for both actors and producers.

The direct relationship between artists and fans

And for the fans or users of the product, what is the advantage?
The supply chain described so far ensures total freedom and the possibility for the artist to completely manage his or her own creations. This would entail the elimination of intermediaries between artists and fans.
The difference from the past, then, lies in the possibility of selling the track or record on the platform directly, without going through record labels.
Consider, for example, the sale of a piece of music: with online music platforms, the consumer is forced to pay a monthly fee to an intermediary who, considering all the links in the chain, will recognize the singer or band only a derisory amount compared to the price paid by the consumer. The same thing happens with the purchase of records.
Try to imagine, on the other hand, the possibility of non-brokered sales between artist and fan: the consumer could buy on the blockchain the songs or that he or she wants to listen to, paying directly to the singer a less substantial amount than he or she currently pays to the online platform or the record industry.
This would make it much easier for the singer or band to track their fans and also have direct and effective feedback on the audience’s liking of a song, at different stages of artistic life.
The substantial difference lies in the new relationship between those who produce music and those who listen, a new paradigm that involves a revolution not only from an economic point of view, but also in purchasing habits.

The future role of intermediaries 

In an ever-changing world, the secret to making a business survive lies in fluidity, the ability to renew itself when necessary and to change course according to the direction of social mores and customs.
The SIAE, for example, has been ahead of its time by taking advantage of technology and exploiting all possible opportunities for improvement, while managing, however, not to be replaced by it.
The role of intermediaries need not disappear to make room for technology, rather they can become an essential form of support in the process of introducing technologies into everyday reality.
In doing so, they would become an indispensable and helpful piece for those beginning to take advantage of digital.
For many, the management of the most advanced technologies is still an insurmountable stumbling block, despite the many benefits that would accrue from using them.
In this landscape, companies such as ChainOn, which put themselves at the service of the client to ensure the correct sponsorship stipulation process, are essential for a progressive optimization of the resources made available by technological progress.

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This type of crime, to date, is one of the most fruitful. There are several areas in which web pirates can exploit their cyber knowledge to the detriment of third parties: there are not only online scams, but theft of data and sensitive information belonging to network users is increasingly common. Often the intention comes from a hacker, that is, an individual who, individually or with others, uses strategies to enter the computer circuit and block it.
The solutions indicated by the use of blockchain against cybercrime, to prevent and foil cyber attacks, are proving useful and promising.

The data security benefits associated with blockchain

The many advantages are closely related to the transparency and incorruptibility of distributed platforms. The decentralized nature of data makes it particularly difficult to access and manipulate a server.
Because of the branched structure, in fact, the hacker is forced to change the information in all nodes of the network at the same time. In contrast, in centralized platforms, all information is contained in a central node.
In the distributed platform, this procedure, given the large number of nodes, is extremely complex and even more expensive, and essentially unworkable.
In this case, the scalability of the platform and the increase in network participants become additional guarantees for the security of the recorded data and the users who are part of it.
This structure greatly simplifies the work of attackers who, by gaining access to the core of the network, can get hold of valuable information, block the circuit and steal money.

Nodes, incorruptible allies against cybercrime

The blockchain records all the information of network participants: it is essential that each node be traceable to a natural person to protect the fairness of exchanges. Despite this, privacy is guaranteed since each network participant corresponds to a cryptographic address, which everyone can know, but which hides the owner’s sensitive data. Subjects, therefore, become users who operate a vigilant control over what happens within the platform.

The blockchain, because of its branched structure, becomes more secure as time passes and as it becomes more widely used. Each time a blockchain or node is added, information protection becomes stronger and vigilant control by participants increases.
Thus, the more users there are, acting as guarantors for each other, the more difficult it is to manage or modify all nodes and blocks simultaneously. For example, if one block were to be deleted from the chain, the information on it would still be present on all the others, which would allow information to be preserved and protected.

To understand how blockchain can change the approach to cybercrime problems, let’s take a practical example. August 2021, Lazio Region portal during the vaccination campaign. A hacker attack blocked the site preventing access to citizens, who had no way to retrieve the necessary information or register for vaccine administration.
Through a decentralized system, rather than centralized software, a hacker attack would have been exponentially more unlikely. And, in any case, it would have had less effect on recovery time and sharing of necessary information with citizens. This, again because of the presence of data on different nodes of the network, guaranteed by the blockchain.

Safer companies with blockchain

From a business perspective, turning to blockchain can be a turning point. Both in terms of streamlining data management through private blockchains and in terms of security. A company that stores its data on a distributed ledger makes witnesses to the exchanges taking place within the platform, all those who have the keys to access it. At the same time, it prevents malicious parties from making changes to what is entered into the registry.

All companies should follow technological progress to keep up with the growth and development of competitors. Blockchain can provide many solutions, including fighting cybercrime. Therefore, many large companies are putting in place strategies to experiment with distributed platforms and IoT not only to assess their benefits, but also to know their weaknesses to be contained.

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