The #Ethereum #hard #fork executed last week as a means of reimbursing investors who lost funds in the collapse of a major project has resulted in the creation of a #competing currency on a #blockchain replicating the platform’s original consensus rules prior to the fork. Announced last week, a project called Ethereum #Classic is continuing […]
CoinDesk
#Bitcoin Core #developers are concerned that the side effects of a hard #fork on the #ethereum #blockchain could have negative impacts on all blockchains.
CoinDesk
#Ethereum has executed a #hard #fork of its #blockchain, returning #funds lost in The DAO collapse to investors.
CoinDesk
CoinDesk outlines a number of ways to #follow tomorrow’s expected #hard #fork of the #ethereum #blockchain.
CoinDesk
For a brief moment on Friday, it seemed that the #Ethereum development #community was (almost) unanimous in their #decision to “hardfork,” with 97% of voters in favor. Hardforking means changing the code of Ethereum to make previous valid transactions valid, or vice versa. The motive in this case would beRead More
Bank Innovation
For a brief moment on Friday, it seemed that the #Ethereum development #community was (almost) unanimous in their #decision to “hardfork,” with 97% of voters in favor. Hardforking means changing the code of Ethereum to make previous valid transactions valid, or vice versa. The motive in this case would beRead More
Bank Innovation
As the #ethereum community debates a #hard #fork option to undo the losses sustained by The DAO, ANZ is questioning the credibility of its #blockchain.
fintech techcrunch
” #Smart contracts are computer protocols that facilitate, verify, or enforce the negotiation or performance of a contract, or that make a contractual clause unnecessary. Smart contracts usually also have a user interface and often emulate the logic of contractual clauses.” – Wikipedia
Smart contracts seem to be all the rage right now, and there have been quite a few posts about them on Twitter, LinkedIn, and in the blogosphere recently.
So… what are they?
You have more than likely experienced a smart contract within the last 12 hours, either personally or as an unknowing (or knowing) participant: Digital Rights Management as an example, whether for music or movies; Hotel room key usage; Online gambling (I hope not); Mobile data usage and overage charges; Book/ship arrangements for service payments. The list goes on and on.
More commonly, today, you are likely seeing these terms floating next to the words #Bitcoin, Codius, or #Ethereum (who has been in the news of late due to a hack), or #blockchain. None of these are required to have a smart contract, but they are likely culprits for increasing the buzz-wordiness of the concept.
Smart contracts basically boil down to this (simplified) explanation: Two people, or entities, decide on an arrangement that can be both digitally validated and enforced. A trusted electronic system monitors the validation point(s) and when a criteria has been met, the system enforces the arrangement. Here’s an overly-simple example:
The smart contract says you are welcome to rent the movie as long as you pay a fee and agree to be charged for a purchase if you fail to return it. The mechanism of enforcement is built into the lock/holding mechanism and the trusted system (you do trust your movie vendor, right?)
The example above is a physical implementation of DRM, the same process could be illustrated for digital locks on Pay Per View movies or downloadable content such as text-books or streaming music. The same IF THEN ELSE rules apply: IF something happens THEN do this, ELSE do this other thing.
The Contract is Smart as long as the criteria can be electronically validated in some way that both parties trust and the enforcement can be done electronically and automatically.
The key to why you’re seeing more and more talk about Smart Contracts is the interest in several frameworks and systems that are being built. Bitcoin and Ethereum, or Barclay’s use of R3’s Corda platform being prime examples of some of those systems.
That’s it, Smart Contracts in a nutshell.
** Tech Primers are meant to be brief and to the point, they are by no means comprehensive. Want to learn more? A good book, your local technologist, Google, and/or Wikipedia are all great resources! **
[linkedinbadge URL=”https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerrygilreath” connections=”off” mode=”icon” liname=”Jerry Gilreath”] is IT executive at RagingWire Data Centers.
In recent weeks, governance issues are a primary concern for the #Ethereum community as it deals with how to build #smart contracts that are useful as well as innovative.
I am convinced of the viability of the Ethereum concept, if executed in a way that works for real human relationships. Business intelligence tells me that establishment players like #banks and governments are convinced too. Today they lack the brainpower to duplicate Ethereum’s achievements, but in time they will manage to execute a world computer for mainstream commerce. A longtime commercial lawyer, I could just build toward that, taking from Ethereum its brilliance and giving nothing in return. But I am more than just a lawyer, I am a dreamer with a mission.
The likelihood of wide-scale smart contracts adoption makes the development of effective commercial models for Ethereum even more important. Many of us aren’t the type to accept the dominant commercial paradigm easily. We want freedom of choice, of self-determination. We want to opt-out and do it our own way. With those freedoms comes the necessity of self-governance.
Done well, smart contracts will unlock for everyday users the wonders of private law previously only available to the rich. Private law has as its fundamental underpinning “freedom of contract”, a common law concept that respects the will of the individual to bind one’s self to a promise. Courts come into play in private law only when parties fail to self-govern or damage others. Staying within the sphere of private law is desirable in building smart contracts, at least as a first step. Taking advantage of property and contracts law benefits while avoiding torts and regulatory pitfalls requires legal training, but it is possible.
When humans learned to write on a wide scale, they began to record contracts, paper documents reflecting a previously oral process. They had the same questions of intent, governance, fairness and predictability as Ethereum developers as they developed ways to deal with the permutations of human contract. They saw in written contracts tool for building vehicles of unlimited potential.
Freedom of contract is real, and as Ethereum smart contracts builders it is what will set us free.
[linkedinbadge URL=”https://www.linkedin.com/in/nina-kilbride-71185610b” connections=”off” mode=”icon” liname=”Nina Kilbride”] is Head of Legal Engineering, Eris Industries and this article was posted on linkedin.
CoinDesk #Research has released “Understanding #Ethereum“, a 48-page deep dive into one of the most exciting #blockchain projects today.
fintech techcrunch
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