Enforcing International Law in an Era of Decentralized Entities

Recent attempts to enforce law in an era of decentralized digital activity have supplied some surprising results. For example, a regulator places open-source software on the list of sanctioned nationals. A settlement agreement requires the “destruction” of immutable digital assets. Digital art is targeted as unlawful offerings of investment contracts. Centralized entities that create front-end websites for decentralized exchange technology become targets of enforcement for activity they did not actually undertake. These represent just some of the many announcements of regulatory activity that permeate the news cycle, documenting attempts by governments around the world to enforce domestic and international law against actors operating through decentralized technology. Meanwhile, developers and other actors in the decentralized software community file lawsuits claiming government overreach and challenging the applicability of traditional enforcement mechanisms.