soft.law

Legaltech for the People

[soft.law @soft_law]

“Combined with emerging information markets, crypto anarchy will create a liquid market for any and all material which can be put into words and pictures.”

- Timothy C. May

[soft.law @soft_law]

Code is law?

This debate goes back to Hans Kelsen (1881–1973) and Carl Schmitt (1888–1985).

-Kelsen defended a system governed by norms and constitutional order -> the rule of law.

-Schmitt argued that in moments of exception, sovereignty decides -> the rule of the King.

Blockchain industry is not unfamiliarwith this kinds of events:

- The DAO hack (2016) showed the “sovereign” moment in crypto: Ethereum intervened, reversed state, and Ethereum Classic was born.

- The Parity Wallet hack (2017) went the other way, no intervention, and funds were locked forever.

Now the same tension appears:

1. if an exploit is valid under code, is it also legitimate? Or does legitimacy require an external authority beyond the protocol?

-Kelsen: if it follows the rules, it is valid.
-Schmitt: when the system breaks, a sovereign must decide.

2. Even governance systems like OpenGov face the same dilemma: are encoded rules sufficient to resolve disputes like funding claims, or is intervention still necessary?

-Kelsen: OpenGov is a clear and transparent rule system.
-Schmitt: The sovereign is necessary to solve the controversy.

It is an old legal theory debate. Now executed on-chain. Both examples require further analysis, and in if you are involved in a similar case, look for expert advice.

We believe than academic exercises are important for the industry. Read more policy and legal theory analysis in https://t.co/he14iOBq4E by the Softlaw research team:

[soft.law @soft_law]

@defiance_cr

[soft.law @soft_law]

OSS devs also needs legal protection:

Repo: https://t.co/eeqhPxfEen

"Go wild with it" is not a license. But it's funny XD

Every fork, remix, and scraped dataset is technically a copyright violation until someone writes one line of legal text. The vibe is right. The paperwork is missing.

Keep giving without legal struggles.

leave it for softlaw. wen? wen is ready™

[soft.law @soft_law]

Btw we love the work of @defiance_cr shipping real tools for free.

[wario @wario_mx]

In case you didn’t know, @soft_law actually started as a SaaS for law firms. One of our earliest projects was Birssa, a debt collection platform we partnered on.

Now I’m migrating that same app (5+ years running in Mexico) from old PHP/Laravel…

…and adding a brain to it.

[soft.law @soft_law]

@wario_mx 🦞👀

[soft.law @soft_law]

We appreciate feedback through the Polkadot Forum:
https://t.co/oFJbIw2Znu

[soft.law @soft_law]

We just shipped a new dao cross-jurisdictional legal analysis.

The academic study explores values, concepts, legal frameworks, wrappers, treasury proposals, on-chain governance, and more.

Read it here: https://t.co/CwIMv4Qfig

[soft.law @soft_law]

@Jizzle_szn @onlyone_zino 💡

[soft.law @soft_law]

after years of building infrastructure, our home @Polkadot has evolved into Second Age

a new era has arrived, and we are building legaltech protection for the people

[Polkadot @Polkadot]

Polkadot just leveled up.

Today's runtime upgrade marks the beginning of a faster, simpler, more usable network designed for real apps.

What changes for you?
→ Apps feel fast and fluid
→ Transactions confirm quicker
→ Builders can focus on products, not protocol engineering

1/3

[Chaos @Chaos_i5]

Thread 🧵: SC went live today on Hub.

One project I noticed building with Foundry is @soft_law.

It reminds me of when InvArch first championed on-chain IP rights.

InvArch aimed to rebuild the full stack around IP, while SoftLaw focuses on legal + IP infrastructure.⤵️

[soft.law @soft_law]

in a cyberspace full of AI, copyrights protection is necessary to earn revenue from your creativity

[soft.law @soft_law]

Milestone 2 have been reviewed and accepted

Solidity Contracts ✅

[soft.law @soft_law]

W3F Founders Grant Update: Milestone 2 Done and submitted for review.

Solidity contracts compiled for PVM + full testing.

Big step toward IP onchain!

Docs: https://t.co/W0jNWhFWH7

GitHub: https://t.co/gZzePQKBOe

Dev: @nomadbitcoin

Next -> UI

[Jizzle @Jizzle_szn]

Most people in web3 don’t realize this yet, but intellectual property is one of the biggest missing pieces in the space.

We mint NFTs.
We build protocols.
We create brands, content, and communities.

But when it comes to who actually owns what, things get blurry really fast.

In traditional systems, IP ownership is enforced by courts and paperwork.
In web3, we’ve moved value onchain but ownership rights are still mostly offchain. That’s the gap.

And this is where Soft Law comes in.

@soft_law is shaping a new way to think about intellectual property not as something locked behind lawyers and borders, but as programmable ownership, verifiable onchain.

Instead of asking “who do I trust?
we ask “what does the chain say?

Licensing, attribution, usage rights all of it can live onchain, transparent and enforceable by code. That’s powerful.

And this isn’t just theory.

Soft Law is being built within the @Polkadot ecosystem, with backing from the @Web3foundation which tells you this is more than an idea. It’s infrastructure.

Polkadot makes this possible because it’s designed for coordination:
multiple chains, shared security, and real world use cases not just speculation.

If web3 is going to scale beyond trading and hype,
we need systems that protect creators, builders, and communities.

IP is not boring.
IP is leverage.
IP is ownership.

And Soft Law is one of the clearest signals that web3 is finally taking that seriously.

[Zino of Web3 ~ priv/acc〽️⭕️ @onlyone_zino]

Everyone talks about owning IP, but no one talks about controlling it.

IP isn’t just about ownership anymore…

With @soft_law, you can trade your IP, while still being the sole owner.

This video highlights how @soft_law is redefining IP from just ownership to becoming tradable and more 🎥 ▶️

[wario @wario_mx]

i was invited last week to drop a legaltech course at a Mexican uni; during 4 days we dive into blockchain, DAOs, wrappers, Polkadot, privacy, and ricardian contracts

the students were paying attention, but looking to the board pics, i guess i’m a mad professor

[wario @wario_mx]

Throwback to the good old days wen life was simple, solving paper contracts disputes

[soft.law @soft_law]

got a copyright legal dispute?

solve it decentralized, on-chain, fast, transparent, cheap, and with longtime ADR expertise

[soft.law @soft_law]

@onlyone_zino @Web3foundation @Polkadot 😍