The Feasibility of a Smart Contract "Kill Switch"
Oshani Seneviratne

TL;DR
This paper analyzes the technical and regulatory aspects of implementing smart contract "kill switches" across various blockchain platforms, exploring their feasibility, challenges, and implications for decentralization and compliance.
Contribution
It provides a comprehensive comparison of existing termination mechanisms and evaluates their alignment with EU data protection and regulatory requirements.
Findings
Diverse approaches to smart contract termination exist across platforms.
Implementing kill switches involves balancing regulatory compliance and decentralization.
Technical challenges and security implications are significant in deploying kill switches.
Abstract
The advent of blockchain technology and its adoption across various sectors have raised critical discussions about the need for regulatory mechanisms to ensure consumer protection, maintain financial stability, and address privacy concerns without compromising the foundational principles of decentralization and immutability inherent in blockchain platforms. We examine the existing mechanisms for smart contract termination across several major blockchain platforms, including Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Cardano, Solana, Hyperledger Fabric, Corda, IOTA, Apotos, and Sui. We assess the compatibility of these mechanisms with the requirements of the EU Data Act, focusing on aspects such as consumer protection, error correction, and regulatory compliance. Our analysis reveals a diverse landscape of approaches, from immutable smart contracts with built-in termination conditions to upgradable…
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
Taxonomy
TopicsFinTech, Crowdfunding, Digital Finance · Insurance and Financial Risk Management · Digital Transformation in Law
