Evolution of Intangible Nonfinancial Commodities and Digital Assets

Christopher Berendt, environment and energy Partner in Washington, D.C., lectured on the “Evolution of Intangible Nonfinancial Commodities and Digital Assets” covering the CFTC Dodd-Frank rulemaking and the physical settlement/forward contract exclusion dynamics of intangible, nonfinancial commodities using environmental instruments/commodities as an example and relating them to digital assets (e.g. tokens) for enterprise blockchains. He opened his lecture with the following riddle to demonstrate the dynamic of “physically” settling something without corpus: “What things are alike because they have nothing in common?” The focus became how enterprise blockchains, if properly structured, could potentially establish intangible nonfinancial commodity status for their tokens and avoid securities and digital currency-based regulation.