Heads or Tails? Making Sense of Crypto-Tokens Issued by Emerging Blockchain Companies
Over the past 18 months, members of the international maritime community have expressed a keen interest in exploring how 21st century blockchain technology can modernize the ancient world of seaborne commerce. Blockchain has in turn spawned many novel business ideas from various start-up companies throughout the marine industry. These new business ventures all generally seek to employ blockchain to streamline the logistics process and to provide greater security and transparency to the commercial endeavor.
At the same time, these companies are setting a new course through uncharted waters with respect to how they 1) generate startup capital, and 2) propose to conduct day-to-day business in the electronic, digital asset (or crypto) realm.
This article explores these dual business components using two types of digital assets: the “security token” to attract capital, and the “utility token” to carry out business interactions. Both are well suited for the maritime area, though maritime blockchain startup companies should be mindful of the regulatory requirements for implementing tokens into their business in the United States.
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“Heads or Tails? Making Sense of Crypto-Tokens Issued by Emerging Blockchain Companies,” by Jeremy A. Herschaft and Michelle Ann Gitlitz was published in the June 2019 edition of The Banking Law Journal (Vol. 136, No. 6), an A.S. Pratt Publication. Reprinted with permission.
This article was first published in the April 2019 edition of Mainbrace, Blank Rome’s quarterly maritime newsletter.