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19 UIC Rev. Intell. Prop. L. [i] (2019-2020)

handle is hein.journals/johnmars19 and id is 1 raw text is: THE FORKING PHENOMENON AND THE FUTURE OF CRYPTOCURRENCY IN THE LAW CHELSEA D. BUTTON I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................. 1 II. BACKGROUND ............................................................. 3 A. The Basics: What Is Cryptocurrency? ................................3 B. The Bitcoin Phenomena ................................ ...........6 1. Bitcoin's Hard Forks.................6......... ...............6 2. Bitcoin Cash's Recent Hard Fork .................... ............7 C. Ethereum ............................................... ...... 11 D. Taxation ............................................ .......... 13 1. Defining a Cryptocurrency. ......................... ........... 14 a. Security ...................... ................... 14 b. Currency .............................................. 15 c. Commodity ................................. ........... 15 2. How Holders are Affected When the Cryptocurrency Hard Forks ........... 16 III. ANALYSIS............................................................... 17 A. Bring in the Lawyers! .. ....................................... 18 B. Anti-Trust Claims........................ ...................20 1. United's Antitrust Claims Against Bitcoin Cash Developers, Exchanges, and Miners .......................................20 2. Caution For The Accusers ........................... ..........23 C. Negligence Claims...............................................25 1. Duty..................... ......................... ....... 25 a. Do Developers Have a Fiduciary Duty? ......................25 b. Do Minders, Node Operators, or Exchanges have a Fiduciary Duty? ........................................ ......... 30 c. What About Common Law Negligence Duty? ....... .......... 31 2. Damages............... ........................ .......... 32 D. Conversion Claims............................................... 32 E. Effects on the Crypto-Community ..................................33 IV. PROPOSAL ............................................................... 35 A. Self-Governance and Internal Regulations ............. ..............35 B. Developers and Miners Should Employ International Contract Counsel.......36 V. CONCLUSION ................................................. ............ 36