Legal Aspects of Blockchain Technology Part 1 — Blockchain as Evidence in Court

Authors: Markus Kaulartz, Jonas Gross, Constantin Lichti, Philipp Sandner

This article addresses the question how a blockchain transaction must be structured so that it can be used as evidence in court. Based on the following different types of formal evidence — namely (1) expert opinion, (2) documents/deeds, (3) inspection or visual evidence, and (4) witnesses and party hearings — we analyze the evidence assessment of a blockchain transaction in detail. The article analyzed the laws and rules of the jurisdiction of Germany.

Preamble

This article is the first publication of the series “legal aspects of blockchain technology” by the Frankfurt School Blockchain Center (FSBC), Datarella and CMS Hasche Sigle. This research is part of the KOSMoS project, a research project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under the funding code 02P17D020. The Frankfurt School Blockchain Center and Datarella GmbH are part of the “KOSMoS” consortium. Together with partners from the industry (Schwäbische Werkzeugmaschinen GmbH, Alfred H. Schütte GmbH & Co. KG, ASYS Automatisierungssysteme GmbH), academia (Universität Stuttgart, Hochschule Furtwangen), and software development (inovex GmbH, Ondics GmbH), they create a blockchain-based solution allowing manufacturing companies to establish a DLT-based framework for producing machines in order to a) execute dynamic leasing contracts, b) provide transparent…