Smart contracts that can be turned on and off by a multisignature mechanism or governance vote are potentially problematic, says Coin Center’s Peter Van Valkenburgh.
Developers building decentralized applications (DApps) should ensure the backing smart contracts can’t ever be changed — that way, they’re less likely to be liable for scams occurring on the platforms, a policy executive claims.
“From a regulatory standpoint, this is actually really important,” Coin Center’s research director Peter Van Valkenburgh said in an April 9 panel at the 2024 Bitcoin Policy Summit in Washington, D.C.
He said Bitcoin developers looking to build DApps on the blockchain’s layer 2 networks who don’t want to “end up in jail” should ensure immutability is enforced into these smart contracts from the get-go.
