Modern commerce depends on a system of centralized record keeping and trusted trading partners. Over the past century, a robust body of commercial law and commercial norms have developed around this system.
Recently, new distributed blockchain technology-enabled systems have been developed—and are rapidly gaining acceptance—that will fundamentally change the way many commercial transactions are conducted. Commercial lawyers and other professionals who fail to become familiar with these new concepts and the attendant vocabulary—and adapt their practices accordingly—do so at the risk of having their practices disrupted by those that do.
