In August 2017, a new entity called the Global Legal Blockchain Consortium was formed with a stated mission to \u201corganise and align stakeholders in the global legal industry with regards the use of blockchain\u201d.<\/p>\n
It had four founding partners \u2013 IBM Watson Legal, BakerHostetler, Orrick, and Integra Ledger. These organisations were coming together, they said, to enhance \u201cthe security, privacy, productivity, and interoperability of the legal technology ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n
At Legal Geek, we felt these were noble ambitions indeed \u2013 but, surely, difficult to achieve within a field as fledgling as blockchain. So 5 months on from its launch, we thought we\u2019d throw back to the consortium\u2019s founding by catching up with one of the driving forces behind it, Integra Ledger CEO David Fisher.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo explain why we wanted to start the consortium, let\u2019s remember the situation around domain names when the internet was getting big,\u201d Fisher explains to Legal Geek. \u201cCan you imagine how much more chaotic and difficult\u00a0things would have been if there had been\u00a0multiple, non-standardised domain name systems? To foster large scale innovation and adoption, the world\u00a0needed industry standards and governance, leading to the creation of ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), which oversaw the development of the modern domain name system.”<\/p>\n
\u201cThe GLBC\u2019s aims are similar for blockchain – we want to bring standards and governance to the way blockchain technology is applied to legal data\u00a0and avoid a scenario where the legal industry has to cope with multiple blockchain\u00a0technologies and approaches for law that are not harmonised\u00a0– the sort of chaotic and costly\u00a0future that ICANN helped the internet to avoid.\u201d<\/p>\n