Competition Law Implications Of Blockchain Technology

INTRODUCTION

This briefing examines how blockchain technology and its applications may present competition law risks that need to be properly assessed and addressed. This briefing provides key definitions, a description of how blockchain technologies work, an overview of new uses for blockchain technology, and an examination of the possible risks under the Antimonopoly Law of the People's Republic of China (the "AML"), and the Hong Kong Competition Ordinance.

Key definitions

Discussions of blockchain technology typically use specialised terminology that is important to understand. A number of key terms that are useful to understand for the purposes of this article are:

1. Blockchain: In simplest terms, a blockchain is a data file made up of 'blocks' of information (e.g. transaction data). This train of transactions is almost impossible to amend after a new 'block' has been added. As put by Nick Szabo (one of the founders of blockchain technology), this is