Can Equity Tame the Blockchain?

The concept of a blockchain was pioneered by Satoshi Nakamoto in his white paper on bitcoin in the depths of the Great Recession of 2008. Public interest quickly progressed from bitcoin itself and other cryptocurrencies modelled upon it, or so-called altcoins, to the blockchain underlying such cryptocurrencies. In spite of skepticism expressed by some, blockchain technology has been proposed for use in a wide range of activities ranging from inter-bank transfers to land and intellectual property registries. One of the key features of the blockchain is its immutability. Although often misunderstood, blockchain immutability is an effective obstacle to common judicial remedies such as rectification. In the face of this challenge, does the law’s answer lie in equity’s jurisdiction in personam, itself often misunderstood in modern legal analysis? This paper studies the extent to which equity’s in personam jurisdiction can ameliorate the otherwise harsh consequences of blockchain immutability as well as the limitations of this jurisdiction.