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Add small blockchains to your practice software

RICHARD WEINER
Technology for Lawyers

Published: November 30, 2018

There is a new, small blockchain product for lawyers on the market. And it may be the breakthrough we have all been looking for. Maybe.

The blockchain may be the database wave of the future, but creating, installing and using blockchain applications for the legal industry can be a complex and confusing process.

Used properly, blockchain can create virtually unhackable data storage, which holds self-authenticating, immutable data points (for law firms, that would mostly be documents).

But it is not so easy to integrate a whole new technology into a staid, change-averse profession like the law. Problems include trying to replace a firm’s database with a large blockchain-based database, that public blockchain technology is affiliated with the hazy world of cryptocurrency, and that adoption of new technology is always a training challenge. And, of course, the expense, the expense.

A founding member of the Global Legal Blockchain Consortium, Integra Ledger, is developing blockchain products that are small and fit on top of a firm’s current software. The company said that doing this allows a firm to use the security of the blockchain without all the above negatives. In particular, since these blockchains are designed only for attorneys, they adhere to the security standards that law firms need ethically.

One Integra product is specifically designed for secure, large real estate transactions with blockchain smart contracts and blockchain smart leases. These documents do not require implementing a large-scale technological change, but just work as any other app would in conjunction with the firm’s current technology.

Another new Integra product may be a real game changer. Without getting too in the woods technically, it sits on top of a firm’s database and adds the good stuff about blockchain storage to the current storage platform.

The Integra product adds blockchain keys to the current database, which has the effect of making each document retroactively into a block. As we know, each block has its own key (password), cannot be changed, and is time-stamped to avoid duplication. But this system can also be replicated in other databases to make authenticated duplicate documents in other attorney’s (or other firms’) databases for sharing and collaboration.

Contact Integra for the details and tell them I sent you. https://integraledger.com.


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