Internet of Agreements: Another Step Forward

Actually this ties into my limbo story from earlier on this morning.

My friends at hexayurt.capital who are working the Internet of Agreements have come out with a couple of new things this week. The IoA is the concept of improving the smartness and contractiness of smart contracts, with some systems for automating all of the legislative and regulatory bits that introduce frictions to some of the supply chains we'd like to have. So your T&Cs will be simpler and more equal and enforceable by machines. I think it's a really important next bit of infrastructure but the devil, as always is in the detail.

Firstly there's a planned conference in October which will include an unconference and hackathon as well as a more traditional sit-down, face-forward, listen to presentations, do all the work in the coffee breaks kind of affair.

But more immediately important is the draft whitepaper for Mattereum, which is the first building block project towards an Internet of Agreements. You can read and comment on a draft in this Google Doc.

Here's the top of it though:

When you update the state of a Mattereum smart contract, the real world legal system can see, recognize, and utilize that change. This is achieved by using natural language contracts which specifically delegate legal authority to two external systems: the smart contract on the blockchain, and an arbitration association which handles disputes. These arbitration decisions are given full legal weight under the natural language contracts thereby folding smart contract edge cases into established off-chain legally binding dispute resolution. This mechanism is known as a Ricardian contract, and was invented by Ian Grigg, one of the authors of this paper.

Mattereum will produce a set of affordable natural language contracts and corresponding smart contracts to facilitate common legal tasks like buying, auctioning and renting physical property, licensing and assigning intellectual property, and contracting for professional services.

Yeah! Yeah, baby, I think so! These are all the things that you often might hear in a blockchain pitch but the real practicalities are all a bit hand-wavy - this work will make it all much more concrete and lawyerable. Go read the whole thing.

Ultimately they'll get to ways of solving my limbo cash problem in a much more equitable way. I will pay (or the Train company will include) a little insurance on top of my payment to cover any dispute. If something goes wrong, I'll be able to clear it up, with much more faith (because, after all I did the right thing) in a rapid and favourable outcome.

Image credit: British Library Collection on Flickr