Description

About the Seminar

The idea of the blockchain is coming to its 15th anniversary but despite the hype surrounding it, seems to have delivered very little in real world terms. Why is that and why are comparisons to the Internet way off the mark?

This talk will explain how blockchains work in detail and explain why they are incapable of achieving the sort of revolutionary change that cryptomania heralds. Once real-world problems are understood and the true reasons for intermediation comprehended, and the narrow nature of security promised by blockchains revealed, the mismatch between promise and delivery will become clear.

About the Speaker

Kelvin Low taught at the University of Hong Kong, Singapore Management University, and City University of Hong Kong prior to rejoining National University of Singapore. Kelvin’s research interest spans the field of private law but with a particular interest in property. He has published with leading journals such as the American Journal of Comparative Law, the International & Comparative Law Quarterly, the Law Quarterly Review, Legal Studies, Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly, Melbourne University Law Review, and the Modern Law Review. He is a co-author of The Law of Personal Property (now in its 3rd edition) and Tan Sook Yee’s Principles of Singapore Land Law (now in its 4th edition).

His works have been cited by the courts in Australia, Canada, England and Wales, Hong Kong SAR, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Singapore as well as law commissions and law reform bodies in Australia, England and Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland, and Singapore.