Thread by @cjenscook

@craigaatkinson @iang_fc @CommonAccord 1/n I was a Director of International Petroleum Exchange then (I oversaw IPE Gas Oil contract deliverable ARA) with10 yrs DTI experience as a forensic accountant in insolvency & corporate law (fraud investigation) & regulation at AFBD (one of 5 initial UK regulators) @seatradelaw

@craigaatkinson @iang_fc @CommonAccord @seatradelaw 2/n IPE developed the first Windows-based trading system & this began my 25 years interest in the area where law, accounting & ICT converge...we didn't call it Fintech then! In 1998 I raised £250k to develop NewClear, which is a generic, globally valid shared transaction registry

@craigaatkinson @iang_fc @CommonAccord @seatradelaw 3/n Three elements: bilateral messaging/ trade matching; market database schema & globally valid market user agreement/club rules which provided that once the transaction had been registered in unique time order ie no need for blockchain, it was legally binding on participants

@craigaatkinson @iang_fc @CommonAccord @seatradelaw 4/n I specified the agreement in terms of legal design & David McFarlane of Pinsent Curtis and I refined it into a robust agreement in the first #OilClear instance. Everybody wanted to own it, but if the sell-side owned it the buy-side would not use it & vice versa.

@craigaatkinson @iang_fc @CommonAccord @seatradelaw 5/n The Internet Paradox: if fintech is neutral, it's not liquid and if it's liquid it's not neutral. Proprietary 'for profit' ownership is of course not neutral - IPE was still a members club when I left in 1996. I also failed to interest Platts (not their greatest decision)

@craigaatkinson @iang_fc @CommonAccord @seatradelaw 6/n In 2001, I blew the whistle on IPE market manipulation & lost everything I had & essentially rebuilt my life from the ground up. Meanwhile ICE acquired IPE & launched eConfirm & CME subsequently launched TradeHub - both appropriating the NewClear trade capture concept.

@craigaatkinson @iang_fc @CommonAccord @seatradelaw 7/n My essay on an archive site summarises my conclusions then opencapital.net/markets.htm My 10 yr fintech action research @ISRS_UCL is legal design of globally valid institutions/instruments ("contrats de société") as distinct from "Anglo" statutory/judge made "contrats de mandat"

@craigaatkinson @iang_fc @CommonAccord @seatradelaw @ISRS_UCL 8/n In 2013 in a submission to @scotgov (abortive) land reform review blogs.ucl.ac.uk/resilience/201… I coined the term #Nondominium to describe a collaborative framework for the Property relationship

@craigaatkinson @iang_fc @CommonAccord @seatradelaw @ISRS_UCL @scotgov 9/n The institutional legal design innovation is: 1/Deconstruct fiduciary/agency relationship into: (passive) custodian, with veto rights; (active) manager/steward subject to joint oversight of users & investors with the outcome that no single stakeholder can impose on any other

@craigaatkinson @iang_fc @CommonAccord @seatradelaw @ISRS_UCL @scotgov 10/n The legal design (re) novation is the financial instrument which I have come to define as a credit obligation ie an (undated) assignable accepted promise/IOU, returnable in payment for supply of goods & services by the issuing promissor.

@craigaatkinson @iang_fc @CommonAccord @seatradelaw @ISRS_UCL @scotgov 11/n The key point is this is not a 'hard' obligation enforceable by rule of law and which may be commoditised & exchanged ie @iang_fc Ricardian Contract : it is a 'soft' voluntary agreement as a relationship where the disciplines are transparency & self-exclusion from "clubs".

@craigaatkinson @iang_fc @CommonAccord @seatradelaw @ISRS_UCL @scotgov 12/n Here the pragmatic platform/service provider architecture of the Protection & Indemnity (P&I) club mutual assurance of shipping risks Lloyds will not take is instructive. Mutual 'clearing union' assurance of distributed performance & credit risk is the solution here

@craigaatkinson @iang_fc @CommonAccord @seatradelaw @ISRS_UCL @scotgov 13/n Having written this essay blog.p2pfoundation.net/fintech-2-0/20… I realised two years ago that the collective corporate 'legal person' (public/private/third sector) may be transcended by mutual risk, cost, surplus, asset/data use agreements.

@craigaatkinson @iang_fc @CommonAccord @seatradelaw @ISRS_UCL @scotgov 14/n Post-Covid, complementary 'mutual aid' solutions are emerging. My lecture to the 2020 @UniStrathclyde Fintech Masters cohort posits a #BacktotheFuture distributed architecture of 21st C Treasuries, Mints & Exchequers. To be found here nondominium.co.uk/2021/01/11/pro…

@craigaatkinson @iang_fc @CommonAccord @seatradelaw @ISRS_UCL @scotgov @UniStrathclyde 15/n In summary, digitisation of intermediated global commerce & finance founders on the underlying metaphysical point that value is definable only in relative terms & absolute binary/digital property rights can only be approximated/hacked by judges in whatever jurisdiction

@craigaatkinson @iang_fc @CommonAccord @seatradelaw @ISRS_UCL @scotgov @UniStrathclyde 16/n In particular, there are lacunae wherever instruments of indefinite duration are involved eg l/c's, bank issued credit obligations and so on. Our entire financial system is founded on myths eg the Myth of Debt blogs.ucl.ac.uk/resilience/201…

@craigaatkinson @iang_fc @CommonAccord @seatradelaw @ISRS_UCL @scotgov @UniStrathclyde @threadreaderapp unroll