Dallas Mavericks owner and Dogecoin proponent Mark Cuban says nonfungible tokens may have the ability to disrupt and even transform industries dealing with digital identity verification and electronic signatures. In an episode of the Unchained podcast released yesterday, Cuban said “anything documentation driven” could potentially be transformed by nonfungible tokens, or NFTs. The billionaire said that smart contracts could destabilize companies like electronic signature technology firm DocuSign. “Right now we see quite a bit of utilization of smart contracts for NFTs but those are really just proof of concepts for what can happen in the business world applications like insurance, …

Daniel Springer, the chief executive officers at electronic signature technology company DocuSign, says the firm isn’t likely to incorporate additional blockchain technology anytime soon as current infrastructure is far cheaper. In a Quartz report published yesterday, Springer said the San Francisco-based DocuSign’s 2018 integration of the Ethereum blockchain involved the use of smart contracts with the firm’s e-signature and transaction management service. According to the CEO, this system resulted in agreements costing roughly $1 each, compared to the usual $0.07 per agreement under DocuSign’s standard encryption measures. In other words, using blockchain ended up 13X the cost. Springer said: “To …

Rep. David Schweikert, a Republican congressperson from Arizona, has referred a new bill to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce that, if passed, would recognize digital signatures on the blockchain as enforceable by law. This is particularly important for the enforceability of smart contracts, which automate transactions or other contractual obligations according to binding, pre-specified rules. Smart-contract advocates have long used the adage "Code is law," and the new bill, if approved, could make this a statutory reality. According to public records, the bill was referred to the committee on Friday. A summary of the bill, H.R. 8524, outlines …

Bitcoin has a certain love for autographs, or digital signatures to be more precise. The bitcoin platform requires people looking to send any amount of bitcoin to prove that they own the private key for the coins being sent. And that's where digital signatures come in; they allow you to prove that you own the key without disclosing it. It's like a signature on a check, but far more secure and next to impossible to forge. So, let's say you send 10 bitcoins. As soon as you click send your transactions will be digitally mixed up and scrambled to create …