Dallas-based AriseBank — intended to be the world’s first “decentralized bank” —  saw its initial offering of a cryptocurrency it called AriseCoin shut down before it could get off the ground, reports The Dallas Morning News.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has halted the sale of AriseCoin, saying it was all part of a more straightforward, old-fashioned investment scam, according to economy writer Jill Cowan.

“Attempting to conceal what we allege to be fraudulent securities offerings under the veneer of technological terms like ‘ICO’ or ‘cryptocurrency’ will not escape the commission’s oversight or its efforts to protect investors,” Shamoil T. Shipchandler, director of the SEC’s Fort Worth Regional Office, said in a statement.

The company company had said it raised $600 million ahead of its initial offering of the new currency.

Read the Dallas News article.

The Economist asks a straight-forward question about a new relatively contract technology: If smart contracts can be made to work, how automated should business ultimately become?

The article discusses the history of smart contracts since the term was coined in 1994, through the recent debacle of Ethereum’s “Decentralised Autonomous Organisations” venture capital fund that was hacked to the tune of $50 million.

“So far, IT has mainly replaced paper processes,”the article says. “Smart contracts mean a different order of automation: economic transactions are put on auto-pilot. True believers want them to do away entirely with intermediaries, from banks to governments. But they should be careful what they wish for. If smart contracts spread widely, you would take away much of the flexibility that smooths the economy’s functioning. Real-world institutions can adjust when things go wrong. For many years to come, and perhaps for ever, human institutions, flawed though they are, will be a smarter bet than relentless, bug-ridden code.”

Read the article.

Josh Stark, lawyer and head of operations and legal at blockchain consulting firm Ledger Labs, comments in an opinion piece on CoinDesk on “smart contracts” as an alternative form of legal agreement, speculating on how they could come to impact his industry.

“Banks, exchanges, and other financial institutions are actively developing blockchain technologies that will enable them to store and trade real assets over blockchain systems. Nasdaq, in partnership with blockchain startup Chain, has developed and begun testing a private-market equity trading platform,” he writes.

“The impact will not be limited to financial contracts, although these are the most obvious use cases. As techniques are developed that enable other types of property to be recorded and transacted on a blockchain, the possible applications for smart contracts will multiply,” he adds.

Read the article.

Smart contracts today may be similar to e-commerce in the 1990s – poised for widespread adoption and explosive growth even though it may still be a few years off, writes Oliver Herzfeld, chief legal officer of  Beanstalk, in an article published on Forbes.com. So, to avoid surprises or missed opportunities, it may be worthwhile to start now to consider and explore the possible applications of smart contracts to your industry and business.

“Essentially, a smart contract is software that executes commercial transactions and/or enforces legal agreements in a manner that eliminates the need for intermediaries and their associated transaction costs,” he explains.

Herzfeld adds that this system could have “a huge disruptive effect on (i) car manufacturers, since use optimization would presumably reduce sales; (ii) insurance companies, that would sell fewer car policies; (iii) financial institutions, that would underwrite fewer car loans; and (iv) taxi and ride hail companies, parking facilities and other businesses, that would all be displaced by this process. The resulting commercial and social disruption could be huge.”

Read the article.

All bitcoin transactions are smart contracts, points out Chris DeRose on AmericanBanker.com. “Many institutions, which are increasingly exploring the use of blockchains for value settlement, have been similarly dabbling in the application and uses of smart-contract technology,” writes the community director of the Counterparty Foundation.

“Smart contract” essentially means “programmable money” or self-automated computer programs that can carry out the terms of any contract.

“The finer points of what programmable money is are still being worked out by enthusiasts, but most agree that it is a financial security held in escrow by a network that is routed to recipients based on future events, and computer code,” writes DeRose.

Read the article.

Blockchain technology has the potential to drastically change the way business is done, mainly in accounting and contracts, reports Inside Bitcoins.

“Large businesses make contracts on a daily basis. Contract law is a wide field of study and essential to understanding how to run a successful business. What happens if the other party breaches a contract? Does a contract need to be in writing to be legally binding? These are things business owners and decision makers need to know. Smart assets are not widely used in modern business, but the benefits of integrating them greatly exceed the low cost of implementing them,” according to the article.

Businesses can create and complete contracts that are stored on the public ledger permanently, it says.

Read the article.