A team of Polish researchers won in the first round of remote-access international competition Global Legal Hackathon 2018, which promotes innovative digital solutions in the area of law and legislation. The solution presented by dr Adam Zadrożny (NCBJ) and associates is based on blockchain technology and is meant to help the taxpayers document, that their business partner was a VAT taxpayer during the transaction.

The team, composed of Adam Zadrożny (National Centre for Nuclear Research and The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley), Beata Goźlińska (Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw) and Marianna Zadrożna, has developed a solution that can restore peaceful sleep to all honest entrepreneurs, who worry, whether their business partners are going to vanish from the list of VAT taxpayers.
“The blockchain-based technology, which we have developed, is used to confirm, in a method reliable in court, that we have verified our counterparty, a VAT taxpayer, in the ministerial database.” – as explained by dr Zadrożny. “If there is any doubt, the ministry (or rather, the tax office) would receive cryptographic evidence. Right now, during a dispute even the most honest entrepreneur can only present screenshots from the ministerial computers. Unfortunately, they are susceptible to manipulation, so they cannot be used as an evidence. Questioning the cryptographic evidence would require to question the blockchain and digital signatures. Our protocol can be extended to downloading any information from polish and foreign government servers, as well as to proving the time of creation of any documents and their contents in a reliable way.”

The blockchain technology is based on a distributed network of computers. Each of them participates in every single transaction or the act of information deposit. The information is saved on a chain of data blocks or is forwarded by these blocks. The user has access only to their own information, as well as to its full history. The user can also verify or obtain confirmation of the history. The system is safe, because its complexity practically excludes the possibility of breaking the code using any obtainable processing power. The blockchain technology was created for cryptocurrencies, but its potential use is much wider. These possible applications can also be important for National Centre for Nuclear Research, which engages in researching cybersecurity, develops modern information technologies – especially in Świerk Computer Centre – and supports one of the polish teams in the competition.

The Global Legal Hackathon is a worldwide competition. It aims to promote the most valuable computer solutions for lawyers and their clients. The technologic revolution is imminent in this field, as claimed by the founders and organizers of the competition – a group of enterprises operating in the IT, legal and consulting market on the global level. This year the first stage of the competition was held in 40 places on 6 continents, as well as remotely on the Internet. It was the last type of the stage that was won by the team of dr Zadrożny. The second stage, which can be attended only by the winners of the first stage, will take place as soon as 11^th and 12^th March. The final stage is scheduled for April and will be held in New York.

See the contaest website:

https://globallegalhackathon.com