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The possibility of remaking the financial system with the blockchain
51–60 of 77 posts
Re: The possibility of remaking the financial system with the blockchain
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Whether the conditions in a contract have been met is very often a matter of huge debate - this is what "law suits" are about. Exactly. While laws and contract terms are written in natural language, this is an AI-complete problem. Not to say we won't solve AGI or important parts of automated legal dispute resolution, but the blockchain and even blockchain-based distributed computing is incidental.
> While laws and contract terms are written in natural language, this is an AI-complete problem. Beautiful way of putting it. I want to take it one step further, however: While laws and contracts are written for human consumption this will be a problem. In the same way that DRM is always going to have to allow for users to view video with analog eyeballs and hear sound with analog ears, if laws and contracts are to b…
Yes, even if a legal subsystem is instantiated in which parties agree to abide by "programmatic contracts," the vast majority of people will not willingly use it. When an extremely precise condition is set, some party will eventually attempt to game the system (obeying the letter, but not spirit). It is in the interests of most parties to have some contract terms be ambiguous exactly as anti-gaming hedges. Ethereum's DAO debacle is a great example. It wasn't a hacker exploiting a bug, it was the system working exactly as intended.
As soon as you are in a situation where one of the parties protests that "strict compliance with the terms is not enough, common sense must apply" your situation is AI-complete.
Re: The possibility of remaking the financial system with the blockchain
#53I do not buy this for a minute and to be fair the headline misrepresents the much more sober tone of the actual article, to the authors' credit. I am not a fan of cryptocurrency in general (that is another argument for another day) so I am just going to focus on one claim regarding law firms: the rise of the smart contract. I do not believe it is a realistic expectation, and here is why: The vast majority of contract…
I am a big fan of cryptocurrency, but completely agree with you about smart contracts. From a legal perspective, as you point out, they are ridiculous, because they can't encode legally "interesting" contracts. Many people seem to think that smart contracts can be used to replace more economic-oriented contacts, like "paying dividends to shareholders". Unfortunately here they are also useless -- the only contracts yo…
We can get most of the way around problems like that, can't we?
If there's no payment, you get an immediately collectable judgment against debtor, or trigger a transfer in other payment streams (from an employer, etc.) or transfers in non-cash collateral (which, depending on the success of block chain, could eventually include block-chain titles to cars, property, other securities, etc.). Usually, banks only lend to the cash poor but asset rich, so that's not so different.
I see blockchain eventually becoming key for short term rental -- hotels, cars maybe. But the legal complexity between the law of hotel rooms and rental houses is huge.
Re: The possibility of remaking the financial system with the blockchain
#54I do not buy this for a minute and to be fair the headline misrepresents the much more sober tone of the actual article, to the authors' credit. I am not a fan of cryptocurrency in general (that is another argument for another day) so I am just going to focus on one claim regarding law firms: the rise of the smart contract. I do not believe it is a realistic expectation, and here is why: The vast majority of contract…
Here's the way I see it. Part of interpreting a contract is deciding whether certain facts are true or not. This part seems hardest for a computer to do (for now), so this part can still be delegated to humans. In the law these are called "questions of fact". On the other hand, "questions of law" are the part that I think can be executed by a smart contract (once the facts are input). You're right that many contracts…
> On the other hand, "questions of law" are the part that I think can be executed by a smart contract (once the facts are input)
I think if you meditate about what qualifies as "taxable income" you'll be much less sure about this. There are also accountants who are paid $500/hr, and it isn't because computers can't tally a column in a spreadsheet.
Re: The possibility of remaking the financial system with the blockchain
#55I do not buy this for a minute and to be fair the headline misrepresents the much more sober tone of the actual article, to the authors' credit. I am not a fan of cryptocurrency in general (that is another argument for another day) so I am just going to focus on one claim regarding law firms: the rise of the smart contract. I do not believe it is a realistic expectation, and here is why: The vast majority of contract…
OK, we replaced the baity title with representative language from the article. If someone suggests a better (more accurate and neutral) title we can change it again.
Re: The possibility of remaking the financial system with the blockchain
#56First we need to figure out smart contracts and educate folks on how capability security works.
Sounds like something that will never happen.
Re: The possibility of remaking the financial system with the blockchain
#57Blockchains cannot understand intent like a human courts can. The idea that intent is an important part of determining the punishment/morals of the crime came out of the French Enlightenment. I'd really rather not roll back this. The difference between an accident , manslaughter , and first degree murder are non-trivial and VERY IMPORTANT . Also fuck you if you want to train an ML bot to that job. You clear don't get…
A small plastic drone with a blue light on top rolls up to the front door of your house and knocks angrily. You answer.
"Your parcel was delivered, but the contents were damaged. According to the picture provided by the purchaser the person inside died while in transit."
What? A person? "It was a mannequin. It's a piece of plastic."
The bot prints out a thermal receipt onto a tray. "You are charged with: Manslaughter. Fifteen to twenty years. Sign here."
Re: The possibility of remaking the financial system with the blockchain
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
All excellent points. I wonder if it fall in some 80/20 rule. 80% contracts may be bog standard and ripe for this kind of automation while remaining will get attention of staff. I am thinking of contracts for jobs, lease, repair works etc.
Contracts like that are almost all available as cheap templates. Smart contracts won't even solve these though. How does a smart contract solve the problem of mold in an apartment where the tenant claims it was existing and the landlord claims it was due to tenant misuse?
Easy! The little _from now on_ mandatory humidity sensor reports from the apartment! A JSON with humidity/mold data from the past 4 years is sent to the blockchain. The contract does some averages and statistics and determines that too many showers were had in 2014. Triggers a fine for the landlord's lies and dials the mold removers.
Re: The possibility of remaking the financial system with the blockchain
#59I do not buy this for a minute and to be fair the headline misrepresents the much more sober tone of the actual article, to the authors' credit. I am not a fan of cryptocurrency in general (that is another argument for another day) so I am just going to focus on one claim regarding law firms: the rise of the smart contract. I do not believe it is a realistic expectation, and here is why: The vast majority of contract…
Here is an attempt to counter. The laws in last few centuries evolved from describing relatively simple cases to more complex ones; similarly smart contracts could grow to describe more and more verifiable conditions for automatic triggering. Additionally we may see growth of mechanisms which can be used as independent third parties - both human experts and various kinds of sensors which input can be included in the contracts.
Re: The possibility of remaking the financial system with the blockchain
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Contracts like that are almost all available as cheap templates. Smart contracts won't even solve these though. How does a smart contract solve the problem of mold in an apartment where the tenant claims it was existing and the landlord claims it was due to tenant misuse?
Easy! The little _from now on_ mandatory humidity sensor reports from the apartment! A JSON with humidity/mold data from the past 4 years is sent to the blockchain. The contract does some averages and statistics and determines that too many showers were had in 2014. Triggers a fine for the landlord's lies and dials the mold removers.
The stock price of the wall mounted humidor company go through the roof overnight. :)