Of Bitcoins, Independently Wealthy Software, and the Zero-Member LLC

This essay introduces to the legal community a fascinating, decreasingly farfetched technological possibility that the Bitcoin software promotes, and it offers suggestions for the how the law might interact with that possibility. In short, the Bitcoin technology allows autonomously operating software — such as a computer virus or the software that manages a network of vending machines — to exercise control over significant wealth, not as an intermediary for individuals or companies but rather, in a functionally meaningful sense, in its own right.The first part of this essay briefly describes the Bitcoin software technology for a legal audience. Part II explains how Bitcoin promotes the possibility of independently wealthy software. Part III considers several legal approaches to that possibility. The legal analysis is exploratory, and it is just a first step; it is too early to offer definite normative opinions. But it will likely be important for legal "technologies," such as organizational forms, concepts of legal entities and legal personality, and institutional systems of contract and tort law to keep pace with technological innovation.