Chinese Courts Continue To Use Blockchain Tech To Settle Cases

The smart Chinese courts are applying a lot of innovative technologies including blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) in order to solve millions of legal cases. The latest blockchain news show that the courts are increasingly relying on blockchain – in fact, sources show that more than 3.1 million Chinese litigation activities from March to October of this year were settled through the blockchain and AI-powered smart internet courts.

Known as the “courts of the future” among people, the Chinese courts encourage citizens to communicate with non-human and virtual, AI-powered judges in front of multiple screens. This negates the need for them to physically appear in court and creates the possibility for citizens to receive their court decisions by text or through major messaging services.

After developing the “world first” smart Internet court in the eastern city of Hangzhou in 2017, China was found to launch many similar operations in the cities of Beijing and Guzngzhou. In April this year, the president of the Beijing Internet Court said that they employ technologies such as AI and blockchain to render judgement. Zhang referred to the Chinese courts and AI using blockchain by stating:

“In the current use of AI as an assistant to make rulings, efficiency is prioritized over accuracy. A human judge is ultimately responsible for the fair ruling. […] But we are heading toward a future when we can see an AI judge sitting at the podium.”

Another report released by the Supreme People’s Court shows that more than 1 million citizens are already registered with the smart court system – along with 73,200 lawyers.

These cryptocurrency news show that blockchain is a great technology for authenticating evidence. Fortunately, the Chinese courts have found great use for it. In terms of regulating it, in September last year we saw the China Supreme Court ruling that evidence authenticated with blockchain technology is binding in legal disputes.

As the full regulatory decision outlined, “Internet courts shall recognize digital data that are submitted as evidence if relevant parties collected and stored these data via blockchain with digital signatures, reliable timestamps and hash value verification or via a digital deposition platform, and can prove the authenticity of such technology used.”