[Applause]
[Music]
thank you so today I'm gonna talk about
what I consider to be one of the most
fascinating aspects of blockchain
technologies which is the ability to
operate on them on their own and to
interact with their own environment like
an independent entity with a life on its
own and this is what I call a blockchain
base life form
and so before we begin let's look at
what of the fundamental characteristics
of blockchain based system that actually
distinguish themselves from traditional
internet-based platforms so first of all
a blockchain is at the centralized
database that operates on top of a
peer-to-peer network and just like the
Internet those networks are global and
transnational and not generally account
for national boundaries and because a
blockchain is replicated on the computer
of every network node then it is highly
resilient and because all nodes actually
follow the exact same protocols then it
is virtually impossible to unilaterally
modify or tamper with the data recorded
on this decentralized database and then
many block chains are also inherently
transparent in the sense that everyone
that is in the network can see what
everyone else is doing with exception of
course of privacy enhancing block chains
like the cache but because every
transaction is actually
cryptographically signed with the
private key of the party executing it
then no one can also later deny actually
having affected and executed this
transaction and then most public block
chains are also pseudonymous
in the sense that people do not need to
identify themselves as individuals in
order to join the network and they just
need to create an account in order to
obtain a public address that will
identify them in AB pseudonymous manner
and then finally and most importantly
modern blockchains make it possible not
only to stop transaction information but
also to store and execute software code
that will hand with a guarantee of
execution in the sense that no one can
actually modify influence or even stop
the execution of that software and so
when we're thinking about regulation
then how does this actually differ from
traditional software code so on the
internet we have this notion of lags
informatica which essentially just means
that code is increasingly being used as
a mean to regulate behaviors and so code
is law because code assumes the same
functionality as the law event oh of
course this code actually remains under
the control of specific online operators
which are themselves subject to the rule
of the law and on the blockchain code is
also being used as a means to regulate
behavior the difference is that this
time because of the specificity and the
fundamental characteristics of a
blockchain then blockchain based code
can actually be designed to largely
ignore the traditional rule of law and
so the only law that actually matters on
those systems is the code and so this
has two important implications the first
one is that it reduced the need for
intermediaries and trusted authorities
because it actually shift the the notion
of trust away from those centralized
potatoes and two of the underlying
technology and so as long as we can
actually trust the technology then we no
longer need to trust in theory anyone
else and the other one is that this
actually creates new opportunities for
increasing the automation and the
autonomy of those blockchain based
systems because once they have been
deployed on the blockchain then the
system no longer needs or hit their
creators and they can actually be
designed to operate autonomously and
independently of the original will of
the parties deploying it and so this
obviously can create some potential
conflicts between the real of code and
the rule of law
and so what is actually a really
interesting to explore is what is the
interplay between those two types of
regulation regulation by law and
regulation by code and whether one can
actually overtake the other so can a
blockchain based systems actually fast
to comply with the law or can it instead
be used as a mean to bypass existing
regulatory frameworks to the extent that
they operate within their own separate
technical framework and so if we back up
a little and we look at the narrative
from the early internet days we might
remember the claims of some of the
internet pioneers like John Perry Barlow
of Tim atsume
who saw the cyberspace as an independent
space that simply could not be regulated
because governments simply did not have
the heart nor the capacity to exert the
sovereignty of a writ but of course this
vision did not actually materialize in
the same way as many of us would have
hoped and as soon as the opportunities
of the internet actually began to be
understood by new and established market
players then the market dynamics
actually kicked in and the architecture
of the internet slowly started to change
become in this increasingly concentrated
system which is today controlled by a
few incumbents and so in just a few
years the internet which has initially
perceived as this tool to promote
individual freedoms and autonomy as
eventually become a powerful tool of
surveillance and control and in fact
after the initial fear of crypto anarchy
faded away it soon become quite clear
that it's not to help to regulate the
internet because as until direct
regulation by law can be difficult
because code is increasingly replacing
the law as a means of regulation then
governments can actually use the law in
order to regulate the code by actually
exacting criteria on those online
operators which are indeed operating
that code but can the same solution be
applied to a blockchain based system and
so the problem here is that we would
have
option we actually have lost one of the
most effective means of regulation which
are the intermediary operator and if
there is no intermediary operator then
it becomes much harder to leverage the
traditional means of regulation that
were available on the internet because
it actually is no longer so easy to
identify what is the actual object of
regulation and so if we look at the
early narrative and promises of the
early blockchain advocates then we might
actually notice that those are actually
quite similar to those the narrative of
the early internet pioneers and so the
question then is whether blockchain
technologies could actually succeed
where the Internet has failed can it
become this new tool of
disintermediation an individual
emancipation that the internet pioneers
were advocating for and can it actually
help materialize these early visions of
the cypherpunks leading to this whole
new wave of crypto energy and so when
talking about the regulation of the
cyberspace people introduced the notion
of irregular bility in order to
highlight the difficulties inherent in
the regulation of such a global and
transnational network like the internet
and in the blockchain space people
prefer to refer to those platforms as
being illegal in the sense that they
operate outside of the purview of the
law and so the idea is that a blockchain
based system create its own separate
technical framework that cannot be
touched or affected by the law and we
can already see quite a few applications
of blockchain technologies that are
actually in direct conflict with
existing regulatory frameworks and those
application of leveraging the autonomy
of Bitcoin of other cryptocurrencies in
order to facilitate money laundering
are in order to set up some
decentralized marketplaces for the
trading of illicit goods or services and
then more recently we also found out
that the tamper resistant feature of a
blockchain can also be abused in order
to record illegitimate content on a
block
such as copyright infringement or hate
speech are potentially links to a child
pornography but answer to prevent the
excesses of specific rights that
actually require the deletion of content
such as of course the height with
forgotten but this discrepancy between
the rule of law and the rule of code is
perhaps the most apparent in the context
of property so traditional property
rights are defined by the law and the
thought they can only be taken away by
the law so if I acquire a particular
piece of property in a way that turns
out to be illegitimate then regardless
of what the law says then I could order
or a judge or I can essentially be
declared not to be the legitimate owner
of this property and the property can be
taken away from me well as when we enter
into this blockchain based systems then
we encounter those new types of
cryptographic assets or blockchain base
property that do not actually follow the
same rules and so for instance if I
legitimately acquired a Bitcoin then no
one has actually unilaterally the power
to seize it from me unless the code
actually provides for that and then the
same issues actually applies in the
context of contracts so traditional
legal contracts are created according to
specific rules which are defined by
contract law and which are the design to
actually create a binding agreement
between two parties but those agreements
can only be enforced through the
intervention of a third party Authority
which needs to read and understand and
interpret the meaning of those contracts
in order to identify what the real
intention of the parties well and when
we move into those blocks and assistance
then we can now create those new types
of contractual arrangements through
those blocks in very smart contracts
which are defined only and exclusively
by the code which is deployed on the
blockchain and so those agreements
actually in the longer
choir third party intervention because
the contractual provision will be
automatically and fast and executed by
the underlying technology of course
which however cannot actually identify
what the real intention of the parties
were but will just merely apply the
wordings of the code and so overall what
this all means is that it is now
possible to deploy software entities on
a blockchain in such a way that they can
de facto act as autonomous agents
because those agent can own property to
the extent that this property can be
digitally represented on a blockchain
and they can also engage into a series
of contractual relationship through the
smart contracts and most importantly
even to most of those agents are
actually quite simple in the sense that
they do not feature any type of
decisional autonomy of AI they do not
the less benefit from a different type
of autonomy which is mostly operational
because they can be designed to operate
autonomously and independently of any
third party authority and so this leads
us to what I consider to be the most
exciting aspect of blockchain
technologies which is the ability to
create those new types of algorithmic
and entities that can be regarded to
some extent as a blockchain based life
form because they are autonomous
self-sufficient in the sense that they
can collect the licenses that they need
in order to sustain themselves and of
course like any other type of life form
they are potentially capable of
reproducing themselves and so this might
sound a little bit confusing at first
but in order to illustrate this concept
I have brought here a small prototype of
a blockchain base life form which you
can interact with so let me just turn it
on
so this is a plant ID which is
essentially the Android version of a
plant and this is my personal attempt
are trying to illustrate in the physical
world what are the basic functionalities
but also what are the legal challenge
faced by decentralized autonomous
organizations and so how does this work
exactly so plants traditional plants
most of them are incapable to reproduce
themselves on their own and they require
the help of top part is to help them
reproduce to the process of pollination
and in the same way plantoids are also
incapable of reproducing themselves on
their own and they require the help of
third party in this case humans to
actually help them in the reproduction
process by donating capital to them in
the form of cryptocurrencies and so one
important thing to understand about a
plant art is that it is made of two
separate components one is the body
which is essentially this mechanical
sculpture that subsist in the physical
world and the other one is the spirit of
the soul of the plant side that subsist
as a smart contract on the ethereum
blockchain and those two components
interact with each other in order to
bring the plant or to life and of course
in order to ensure its capacity of
reproducing and so let's look at what
are the different phases of reproduction
of a plant oil so the first one is the
capitalization phase which is when the
planter will try and make itself pretty
in order to lure people into donating
some cryptocurrencies to it and so every
plant or it has its own eternam account
that people can send funds to and
whenever it has collected some fans then
the plant that will show some form of
appreciation to to thank the Sunda by
doing some dances or by playing music or
by doing some small light show so I'm
gonna do a small demonstration I'm gonna
feed this little plant out with some eat
and
hopefully it's gonna be thankful for
that and so what is happening is that
the planted is constantly monitoring its
balance on the Italian blockchain and
whenever it does notice that it has
actually collected a sufficient amount
of funds in order to reproduce itself it
will trigger the math contracts on the
Italian blockchain which will actually
activate the second phase of
reproduction which is the mating phase
and this is when the planted will
actually actively start looking for her
mate in order to help it reproduce and
this is done again via the smart
contract on the Chilean blockchain that
will open a call for bids inviting
artists designer or anyone to submit
propositions as to how they envision to
produce the next plant I'd and so the
people that then have submitted a
proposition and then the people that
have founded the planter can then vote
on those different propositions that
they liked the most and then eventually
the smart contract will then process all
this information and eventually will
identify which one is the winner and
this is what will activate the third and
final phase of the production which is
the - phase and this is when the
Plantard will execute as much contract
transaction in order to transfer the
funds that it has collected so far to
the selected winner who will then be
hired by the planter in order to create
a new copy of itself and then of course
plantoids are not inherently selfish but
they also care about their own theaters
and so every time appointed has
accumulated a sufficient amount of funds
to reproduce itself it will spend a
small portion of those funds back to its
pattern to the planter that generated it
and another small portion of those funds
will be sent to the artist to the person
that actually created it and so this
kind of pyramid scheme actually comes
with two important benefits so the first
one is that I created the genesis
planted and so I currently stand at the
top of this pyramid but the second one
which is more important is that this
actually creates a positive incentive
accession structure for every artist to
try
and create the most beautiful or the
most interesting plant I'd because the
most popular this planted will be then
the more fans it will be able to collect
and reproduce under for the high of the
royalties that the artist will be able
to collect and then another interesting
aspect of this is that this to some
extent disrupt the traditional
conception of copyright law which is
based on the notion of scarcity and
exclusivity
whereas here every artist actually has
the strongest incentive to maximize the
dissemination of its work because that
will enable the planter to collect more
funds but also to encourage the remix
and the creation of derivative works
because this is actually what we
maximize the return on investment but
then more importantly what it does is
that it actually is shifting the focus
away from the artist and two of the
artists and so instead of sending money
to an artist in the hopes that he or she
will continue to produce works that I
like we can now send funds directly to
the art piece itself who will then be in
charge of selecting which artists is
actually entitled to reproduce a copy of
itself and so here you can see the
genealogical tree of the planted species
so as you can see this is pointed number
seven which is the result of the
reproduction of the Janice's planted
number one and so every planter actually
needs to abide by the criterias which
has been embedded into the DNA of its
patterns so for instance in the case of
this plant art it has to be made of
chains and its design must be released
under a Creative Commons license as
required by the genesis plant oil one
and then every artist can then introduce
additional criteria into the DNA of the
planter that they are producing and
those criteria will then need to be
implemented and incorporated into every
single one of the distinct descendants
and so what this does is that this
actually creates some kind of
evolutionary algorithm oh well by
different plant arts will evolve in
two different species each one with
their own characteristics and so the
planter that will be the most popular
will be able to collect more funds and
the four will be able to reproduce more
whereas the blinders that are actually
perhaps least appreciated will
eventually just fade out into extinction
and so in the end we can actually find
out which one of those plantoids are
actually the most fit for the whole
environment and those are the one that
we'll be able to reproduce more and
eventually colonize our planet and so
and on that point I'm actually very
happy to say that the last three
plantoids that have been produced I've
traveled all the way to the US in order
to colonize black cod city during the
Burning Man festival last year and
hopefully we also be coming back next
summer but when it comes to the
reproduction process then one important
thing to understand is that just like
humans
plantoids can actually rely on two
different strategies in order to
maximize their chances of the projection
on the one hand they can rely on the
physical attributes or aesthetics trying
to be as beautiful as possible in order
to attract more hearts cryptocurrency
donation and on the other hand they can
actually rely on the more spiritual of
intellectual features which are defined
by the governance structure which has
been codified into the smart contract
and so this little planter is actually a
new experiment because it incorporates
those dark holographing consensus into
its DNA and so this means that once this
planted will actually start reproducing
after it has collected one eater of
donations then anyone will be able to
submit propositions about how to
envision to produce the next plant ID
and every single one of those planters
will also need to incorporate the
holographic consensus into that
government structure and if you do want
to learn more about the holographic
consensus please come and talk to me
afterwards but to conclude I just want
to say that what's actually is feel
interesting about this is actually not
just the fact that the planter can
actually reproduce itself
but actually all the legal challenges
that it actually brings about especially
with regard to property and contract law
and so for instance those the planted
actually owned the ETF that is being
donated to it even though it does not
actually qualify as a legal entity and
can be planted actually enter into a
real contractual relationship with the
artists that it is actually hiring to
create a new copy of itself even though
it does not have any type of legal
personality and then most importantly
what kind of Records does the planted
actually has in the case of a breach of
contracts for instance if someone
decides not to respect the DNA and the
criteria that has been incorporated into
its patterns and so those are all very
important legal questions that actually
do not really have any proper answer yet
and the plaintiff is actually really
here just to convey and to illustrate
all those new legal challenges that are
actually being raised by many different
types of blockchain based life forms are
decentralized autonomous organization
more generally and that actually it will
become soon very important to actually
address and and those are actually all
those questions that we are currently
investigating with koala as we are
trying to better understand the
interface between the rule of law and
the rule of code enacted by blockchain
technologies with the intention to
actually create a bridge between those
two world in order to enable them to
interconnect and to interface with one
another without necessarily having one
overtaking the other and so I'm happy to
answer any question you might have and
if I don't manage to answer them
properly I will invite you to try and
read this book blockchain and the law
where I'm actually engaging into a much
more in-depth analysis between the
discrepancy between the river flow and
the hill of course thank you
we have five minutes for questions
I'm just curious during the proposal
process where people can vote on what
the next plantoids is going to be like
can you propose any arbitrary
improvement to it within the
genealogical tree so you need to respect
the DNA of the patterns but then it's
actually part of the of the game that
every artist will incorporate new
additional criterias into the new plant
or that you're treating so you can
innovate in any ways you want as long as
you're actually respecting the DNA
criterias I say so could I propose
attaching a giant solar array to it and
then having it mind its own ether yes
and and you can not only you can do that
but you can also add these as a DNA
criteria which means that once this plan
so it will reproduce everyone will also
need to implement a similar thing it
seems like you would have a significant
selective advantage maybe you should try
to submit that maybe yeah well and you
suggested among the questions you have
is can the planetoid act as an
autonomous agent as in a way recognized
by law I it seems to me that the
planetoid does act as an autonomous
agent per its own contract yes I mean
the fact that it does that the point so
the factor you create something that can
own property and that can engage into a
set of contractual relationship so in
practice the factor it is acting as an
autonomous agents now the question is
how does this thing that exists within a
technical framework how does that
interface with the law as in if the
planet is holding heater how do you
actually represent this from a legal
perspective because you cannot say that
an object is owning either because this
doesn't have a legal personality or if
I'm actually being hired by the plant ID
to create a new plant ID what kind of
contractual relationship I have is the
counterparty to my contract is not
doesn't have a legal personality and
most importantly the question of course
what happen if I hate the contract that
I have with the plantoids
what kind of plant I do in order to
actually sue me I'll do anything about
my pitch of contra so that's the it does
the interesting thing is that there is a
distinction between what happened de
facto which actually we can create those
autonomous agents and then what the law
can see and then lo cannot see those
agents because it can only see things
that the legal system actually
recognized and so it's going to try and
interpret for instance Edina so maybe it
is a general partnership if there isn't
some people that are actually part of it
but it's a fully automated system then
it becomes much more complicated so the
question is how do we actually connect
the two are actually how do we create
some kind of membrane that enable the
blockchain based system the autonomous
system to interact with the real world
with the legal world in a way that
actually is consonant with what they
actually can do and in the u.s. what
would you say the structure is closest
to being able to recognize your early
plantoids so I mean most of the
plantoids today because they don't have
not very sophisticated in terms of AI
and whatever so they actually rely on a
human government so the funders are
actually to some extent the governor of
the plant odd so I will say that in the
u.s. it most likely will qualify as a
general partnership and therefore you
could you could claim that if we are
breaching the contract then perhaps
every single person from the legal the
general policy could potentially
identify itself because of course it's
absurd animals and then try to prove
that they are indeed some of the
governance people and therefore try and
bring a claim and it's like it's really
messy and I mean the work that we are
trying to do with coral and in general
is like let's try and figure out how we
can some extent like formalize or just
like trying dive into this to understand
what are the different possibilities and
what kind of step do we actually need to
take either at the technical level or
like techno legal contraption in order
to achieve the goal that we want
I so the the plantoids definitely looked
very cool but you know how much
importance is really being placed on
physical form of these things it seems
like a lot of dowels that are you know
popping up the overall lifetime
expectancy of a dhow is for it to become
a autonomous agent especially as you
know collecting becomes automated voting
becomes automated by the network and
everyone implementing things in the real
world becomes increasingly automated so
I mean like this entire project is cool
you know why focus on a physical piece
of hardware that doesn't really add too
much compute capabilities instead of
more you know software deployment and
autonomous ways trying to lead more
towards dows with autonomous
decision-making so I mean that's an
artistic project successful so it needs
to have some artistic project and the
idea is actually I'm using this as a as
an object to talk with lawyers and to
talk with anyone like if you try to
explain to like someone that is not like
deep into the bloodstream space if you
try to explain a dhow and if you want to
discuss with lawyers about the legal
challenges of a dhow it's really
complicated because everyone stopped
asking about the technical question
which is not the interesting thing
because then you have to stop explaining
the world auction thing before you can
actually engage into an interesting
legal discussion so this is actually a
very nice shortcut because you just
explain how the dial works and then
people actually stop thinking around
this object of the doubt but actually
sub-discipline thought and therefore you
can actually engage into the snigger
discussions without having to explain
all these things that goes into like the
technicalities of the blockchain so it's
it's not far it's not as a prop that
illustrates the legal challenge in a way
that is actually very accessible and
that makes it possible to actually
discuss around that and I'm actually I'm
very eager to figure out or to resolve
those legal challenge for the plaintiff
but if we figure it out for the plan
that we figure out for the dollars in
general right and then the other thing
is that I feel like having like the
physicality and the governance is like
in the evolution in the genealogical
tree you can play on both sides so most
of the planted so far they have always
been focusing on the physical evolution
so the DNA is mostly related to the way
they look and this is actually the first
one that
incorporates as a DNA criteria a
governance question so now it is like
this is the smart contract that becomes
part of the DNA which means that now
every single one that is reproducing
from this one will have to incorporate
the double-stack holographic consensus
and then people need to innovate within
the government structure of that smart
contract right so it can go it's like a
hybrid between two my hope is that
actually there will be increasingly more
advances and evolutionary things that
happen within the governments but at the
same time there will also be the
physical because it's an artistic
project thank you for that inspiring
talk about such an inspiring topic and
my question is you mentioned two notions
about autonomy and agency and whenever
we are in discussions about like let's
call it digital persons to explain like
natural legal and digital persons and
people are always scared of this
guaranteed self execution and this case
that it's unstoppable unless you stop
the whole network and then the first
thing that people usually say is like oh
that's kind what are we going to do we
need a kill switch in the code what is
your thought about if you would have a
kill switch in the code wouldn't that
take away the operational autonomy at
the end absolutely so there would be a
contradiction actually to have a good so
not all doctrine based systems are
designed to be fully autonomous and if
you start creating something whether is
an owner of this map contract or if you
use like proxy contracts or all this
stuff I mean it is it is decentralized
but it's not autonomous because you have
someone that is actually controlling the
system so yes I mean I'm not sure yes it
will definitely reduce the autonomy of
the system so when we talk about the
centralized autonomous organizations we
probably talk about those particular
types or smart contracts which are you
know I mean whatever who knows what sort
of commands but of course it's never
fully autonomous because usually you
always have people that can vote with
tokens or with a reputation on things
like this so it's not like fully AI
based system but and the question is one
is when does it stop being
decentralized autonomous organization
and it becomes like a centralized
control smart contacts thank you hello
I have done some experiments with
Delaware series LLC and interim smart
contracts but in this case isn't it
global consensus that you can't have
legal personality just by contracting
isn't it
consensus that personalities always
granted and awarded by a law and
government
absolutely that does the point is like
we have things that can technically do
things that the law cannot understand of
C because of the lack of legal
personality but it still happened
interest in owning they are still
processing ETA and they can still enter
into smart contracts relationship it's
just that the law doesn't see this as
being the owner but then the question is
who is the owner of the heeta that has
been donated to it I don't know the
partnership I'm sorry the partnership
and people in the partnership assuming
that you do have a patent a general
partnership probably if it's like a
fully automated AI based system then we
have another question Thanks okay thank
you