Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency – a digital currency that uses cryptographic techniques to regulate the generation of units and to verify the transfer of funds. It is largely anonymous and unregulated, and underpinned by a digital ledger technology known as blockchain. In terms of the market, there is a limit of 21m Bitcoin that can ever be created. It is very narrowly held, with an estimated 40% of Bitcoin held by just 1,000 ‘investors’ and only a third having been traded in the last year. However, there are also a number of synthetic products through which one can gain access to Bitcoin, including contracts for difference, ETFs (exchange-traded funds) and, as of December, exchange-traded futures.

If, for whatever reason, software change is essential, we’ve compiled five questions to ask yourself and prospective suppliers to help you really assess your options and carefully research the marketplace before you switch over. The preparatory stage of your software swap project necessitates watching software demonstrations, meeting key personnel, reading contractual documents, asking this series of probing questions, and then evaluating your combined result.

With the increased likelihood that legal services providers offering reserved legal activities may be able to move from one regulator to another, and the significant disparities between the compensation fund contributions raised and held by different regulators, Martina Hogg asks if it is time for the Legal Services Board to review compensation fund arrangements across all regulators.

In 1984, a non-profit was established in Sacramento, California, by a group of scientists to search for extra-terrestrial intelligence (called SETI). I could not help comparing this with my experience of working with law firms, where there is often an expectation of almost immediate results from any marketing communications initiative. My heart sinks every time I hear “Oh, we didn’t get anything from that initiative, so we will not do that again”. This betrays a misunderstanding of the effort that is often required to break into a new market, win a major client or develop a profitable source of referrals.

The word ‘chatbot’ has been appearing with increased frequency in Legal Futures stories over the past year. As a popular human interface for computer software backed by artificial intelligence (AI), it is a phenomenon we are likely to see yet more of. The combination of ‘chat’ – an essentially human activity – and ‘robot’ neatly encapsulates this interface. Other names for the technology are chatterbot and artificial conversational entity. And the application of chatbots in the law appears to be growing.