Hong Kong Court Utilizes Blockchain For Legal Notices

According to PANews, a Hong Kong court has initiated the use of blockchain technology to deliver tokenized legal notices to anonymous owners of illicit wallet addresses. This development follows a court injunction revealing that two wallet addresses on the Tron network have received such notices, with instructions to freeze their assets. While courts in jurisdictions like the United States and the United Kingdom have previously adapted to new methods, Hong Kong's approach is notable for not allowing ignorance as a defense. Joshua Chu, a cybersecurity advisor at Macro Systems, explained that continuing transactions could lead to criminal charges. Centralized exchanges, which are obligated to comply with anti-money laundering and 'know your blockchain' regulations, may exercise caution or refuse transactions with these wallets. Traditionally, legal documents are served in person, but some jurisdictions permit delivery via registered mail, email, or fax under specific conditions. If recipients cannot be located, notices are published in newspapers or online. Moses Park, the plaintiff's lawyer in the Hong Kong case, noted that serving court documents to wallet holders was previously challenging under existing procedures. The court injunction has established a digital perimeter around the 2.65 million USDT lost by victims of online fraud. However, by the time the tokenized court order reached the suspicious wallet, some assets had already been moved to an exchange. As of the report, approximately 1 million USDT remains in the wallet. Chu mentioned that the remaining assets are being handled separately but declined to provide further details.