This work package studies the challenges resulting from the distributed nature of blockchain systems. In particular, the full-replication model adopted by the majority of existing blockchain systems creates fundamental legal uncertainties in terms of competent jurisdiction, assignment of liability, and cross-border operations, while simultaneously considerably hampering scalability.
To address these uncertainties, we are exploring novel sharding and storage abstractions that can help align the internal workings of blockchain systems with the legal constraints of national, European, and International Law.
Our first contribution in this direction consists of SplitChain, a novel sharded blockchain.
