Blockchain law: Stop thinking great thoughts and just read the contract

A number of recent decisions in crypto bankruptcies and lawsuits illustrate the point that the plain text of the contracts between platforms and users often matters far more to defining their rights than any of the policy debates or philosophizing that sometimes can occupy the FinTech community and press.

Perhaps the most valuable lesson I may ever have learned in law school was when an exasperated professor cut off a longwinded student by saying "Stop thinking great thoughts and just read the contract." A number of recent decisions in crypto bankruptcies and lawsuits illustrate a similar point — that the plain text of the contracts between platforms and users often matters far more to defining their rights than any of the policy debates or philosophizing that sometimes can occupy the FinTech community and press.

Robert A. Schwinger explores recent developments in this edition of his New York Law Journal Blockchain law column.

Download the full New York Law Journal article, "Stop thinking great thoughts and just read the contract"