WEB SERVICE - The U.K. High Court has permitted a claimant to serve court proceedings via an NFT on the blockchain in a ruling with potentially far-reaching implications, Law.com International’s Jack Womack reports. The order, which was granted on June 24 but only made public this week, allowed an Italian businessman to serve proceedings on “persons unknown” by way of a non-fungible token drop to two wallets into which he had initially deposited cryptocurrency that he now alleges was misappropriated. The ruling follows a similar decision by a New York court in an unrelated U.S. case earlier this month. Counsel for the plaintiff in the U.K. suit, Giambrone & Partners, described the high court’s ruling as “a welcome example of a court embracing new technology.” The firm added that the ruling states that cryptocurrency exchanges hold the stolen cryptocurrency as trustees, meaning they are responsible for making sure it is not moved on or withdrawn from their exchanges. Christopher Whitehouse, a senior associate at RPC, said he considered this element of the ruling to be even more significant than the service by NFT component. “Crypto exchanges will be following this very closely, and it’s massively disadvantageous to them,” he said. “They certainly don’t want to be on the hook to transfer money back to people who have been defrauded.”
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“It has been jaw-dropping. Breathtaking. The revelations that have come out in these hearings should give all of us significant pause, irrespective of political affiliation.”
