Bitcoin

A business that builds on Bitcoin, accepts bitcoin payments, or holds bitcoin relies on contracts with customers, developers, and service providers. Those agreements define payment obligations, software ownership, and responsibility for losses.

Hank Fasthoff brings 29 years of business, intellectual property, and litigation experience to those decisions. He applies that experience to bitcoin payment terms, custody and vendor agreements, software development, privacy, and commercial disputes.

An engagement can begin with an assessment of your proposed product, service, or payment arrangement. You provide a description of the business, how funds and customer information are handled, the parties involved, and the agreements under consideration. Hank examines those materials and asks the followup questions needed to understand the legal issues, relying on the business and technical information your team supplies.

Before the assessment begins, you and Hank define the questions to be addressed and the deliverables. He assesses the proposed model’s contracts, ownership arrangements, customer obligations, and privacy requirements, identifies changes within the agreed scope, and explains which questions require additional regulatory analysis before launch. Tax and securities advice require separate counsel.

For a business holding bitcoin, custody review addresses who controls the keys needed to authorize a transfer and whose cooperation the business requires. Hank examines the applicable agreements for signing restrictions, service commitments, liability limits, termination rights, and dispute procedures. Each review addresses the particular product, contracting entity, and documents your business will use.

Hank drafts company authorizations that define who may approve transactions and the responsibilities of each signer. These documents address departures, loss of access to keys, and disagreements among owners about company funds.

Accepting bitcoin raises decisions about when an invoice is satisfied, how long a quoted exchange rate applies, who pays transaction fees, and how the business handles late payments, underpayments, and refunds. Hank drafts payment and customer terms for the process your business uses, including arrangements through BTCPay Server or a payment provider.

Hank drafts refund terms that specify how the business calculates the amount owed, which fees apply, and how customers receive payment, subject to applicable consumer law. For purchases priced in dollars and paid in bitcoin, those terms address the exchange rate used to calculate the refund.

A business building on Bitcoin may commission wallet software, merchant integrations, interfaces, or internal tools while using existing open source components. Hank drafts employee, contractor, and development agreements that distinguish existing materials from commissioned work and document the ownership transfers or licenses the business needs. The agreements also address deliverables, acceptance, maintenance, confidentiality, and whether developers may publish or reuse their contributions.

Hank drafts privacy policies, customer terms, and data processing agreements for businesses building on Bitcoin based on their products, data practices, and applicable legal obligations. For a wallet or payment service, he addresses how the business collects and uses customer and payment information, what it shares with vendors, and the rights customers can exercise. He also advises on procedures for handling privacy requests, retaining and deleting information, and responding to a data breach.

A failed development project, disagreement over software ownership, or breach of a vendor agreement can interrupt the business long after launch. Drawing on his litigation experience, Hank evaluates the contract, available evidence, potential remedies, and practical prospects for recovery, then advises on negotiation or litigation.

For continuing engagements, he drafts agreements for new products and commercial relationships and advises on changes involving vendors, customers, and business operations. You work directly with Hank on the decisions and documents within the engagement.