The Supreme Court of China made an important ruling on
The Supreme Court of China made an important ruling on blockchain technology and its application in the country. The SC has ascertained legality to evidence that has been verified by blockchain technology, and made it binding in all legal battles, effective immediately.
The announcement is a part of a series of announcements which concern internet court litigations. Back in August 2017, a court was opened by the Chinese city of Hangzhou, which would try cases related to internet disputes. The court runs on a web platform and is a ‘Netcourt’ of sorts. This January, legally obtained blockchain-verified evidence was used to try the first case.
Supreme Court declared in its judgment that:
“Internet courts shall recognize digital data that are submitted as evidence if relevant parties collected and stored these data via blockchain with digital signatures, reliable timestamps and hash value verification or via a digital deposition platform, and can prove the authenticity of such technology used.”
The internet courts of China are extremely efficient in terms of how they try cases. It is a formalized and legal process that they follow. It includes online “litigation acceptance, delivery, mediation, evidence exchange, pre-trial preparation, court trial, and sentencing”. On the charts, there are two more internet courts that China wants to set up. One in Beijing and the other one in Guangzhou.
The digital information that will be taken into consideration needs to be legitimate. The authenticity of the technology being used needs to be proved. This verdict opens the door for blockchain to be taken seriously as a technology that can help in the judiciary system and contribute to a nation’s growth.