Barbara A. Jones

Connect: Read more about Barbara A. Jones
Firm/Organization: Greenberg Traurig, LLP
Blogs: Emerging Technology Views, Financial Services Observer, GT Israel Law Blog

Latest Articles

Everybody is talking about blockchain as a disrupter in the banking and finance industries, but this emerging technology also has potential application for intellectual property (IP) protection. Blockchain creates the potential for an “open, distributed ledger” that permits the secure transfer and recordation of information and data, including digital assets, without the need for middlemen. Once recorded, the data in any given “block” cannot be changed retroactively, except in certain circumstances involving the modification of…
The rise of blockchain technology ventures raising money preternaturally through initial coin offerings and token generation events (collectively, ICOs) is a capital formation disruptor, one which has and will continue to spawn considerable futures, fortunes, failures — and frauds. Blockchain-based ICOs have, through 121 offerings closed during January-August 2017, raised over $1.78 billion, with an expected amount at year-end 2017 of over $3 billion according to publicly-available estimates. While IPOs raised about $12 billion (and…
The rise of blockchain technology ventures raising money preternaturally through initial coin offerings and token generation events (collectively, ICOs) is a capital formation disruptor, one which has and will continue to spawn considerable futures, fortunes, failures — and frauds. Blockchain-based ICOs have, through 121 offerings closed during January-August 2017, raised over $1.78 billion, with an expected amount at year-end 2017 of over $3 billion according to publicly-available estimates. While IPOs raised about $12 billion (and…
On Oct. 12, 2017, the Investor Advisory Committee of the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (the SEC) hosted a panel discussion on blockchain technology. The session represented another instance of the SEC’s ongoing consideration of the impact of blockchain technology on U.S. securities markets and investors. Different perspectives on blockchain technology and its application to U.S. securities markets and transactions were shared by the panelists. The panel included Jeff Bandman, a former fintech advisor to the…
The U.S. regulators have long been considering ways to make it easier for early-stage startup companies to raise capital in a more flexible and less cumbersome method.  The SEC has finally published regulations providing emerging companies with access to U.S. “crowd” investors making smaller investments.  Although the new regulations are perhaps less of a radical change than some might have been hoping for, they provide a fundraising avenue that may be attractive to some of…