Grundbuch ex machina

After the financial crisis of 2008, the concept of an intended currency alternative called Bitcoin was published under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. During the first years after the publication, the interest focused exclusively on the use case of a new type of payment instrument. However, there is an increasing interest in the underlying registry, which is called a blockchain because of its specific mechanism of transaction validation. Technology enthusiasts often refer to the land register as a future use case. The book takes up this idea and examines it in depth for the first time. In the absence of an established terminology, it first identifies the essential characteristics of a blockchain. Afterwards, it compares to what extent the blockchain and the land register are similar in their structure and functioning, in order to finally evaluate whether a blockchain would lead to disintermediation in the land register and how the decentralized solution of the double-spending problem relates to bona fide purchases ("Rechtsscheinkonstellationen").