Interview - Anne Veerpalu - Workshop in Tartu | CHEDTEB Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership

Interview - Anne Veerpalu - Workshop in Tartu

As we are almost reaching the middle of the week, we would like to introduce you to another interview. This time with the fourth speaker of our Workshop in Tartu - Anne Verpaalu - who is currently an attorney at law for NJORD and also a visiting assistant at the University of Tartu!

 

What made you interested in blockchain or smart contracts technology in the first place?

A client´s case – de Voogd vs Estonian Police. 


What has made the technologies (especially cryptocurrencies) so popular in the last year in your opinion?

Global access and financial crisis is 2008. Lately bitcoin price. 


Do you think that companies are open (or will be open) to implement these technologies?

Yes. Lot of industries have so much advantages from the use, so it is practical and profitable to use it. The use cases prove how widely the technology is nowadays used. 


To what extent the technologies could potentially improve the efficiency of the company?

It depends on the company’s service, business model etc. Some companies do not need Blockchain at all and often nowadays ICos use the buzzwords including blockchain, but there is no actual benefit from it. Efficiency is achieved by taking the intermediaries out of the picture – like in fintech taking regulated banks and other companies with high overhead and profit margins out of the picture.


Where do you see the technologies in 5 years?

Difficult to predict as I am just a lawyer and not a futurologist. Distributed ledger technologies need to survive quantum computing – that is the biggest challenge of cryptography and it is interesting to see what will happen with this pooled mining resource – I expect these to have both positive and negative effect.


What is most important from your specialization that the students should know in order to apply them later in the company/practice?

Students should understand how the technology works, the legal and technical risks involved and how the business could benefit from it.


Do you think that the law risk management is more suitable to be taught in a form of a short course or as a part of a complete Master degree?

Legal risk management is basically taught to law students in every course. To non-lawyers workshops, seminars would work. 


How would you propose a course for your specialization, what it should include? 

For lawyers? Business model descriptions and risk identification. 


What skills/background should the teachers have in order to pass the subject to the students?

Practical background is the most valuable.

About

This project shared by the three partner universities Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences/D, Brno University of Technology/CZ and University of Tartu/EST aims to provide the framework for a future joint master's degree on Digital Transformation of Corporate Business.

Search