The essence of existing law is a contract. It is a consensus between people (who live in
a each other should act. There are also some contracts between individuals. These contracts can be understood as a kind of private law. Accordingly, this private law is only effective for the participants
of the contract.
For example, you enter into a contract with a person to lend him a sum of money, but he ends up breaking the contract and does not intend to pay the money back. At this point you will most likely take the other party
to court. The good news is that you and the borrower wrote down the terms and entered into a contract. But both
lawmakers must face a challenge that cannot be ignored: ideally, the content of a law or contract should be clear and unambiguous, but current
laws and contracts are defined by sentences. composition, and sentences are notoriously ambiguous. Therefore, there have always been two huge
problems : first, contracts or laws are defined by ambiguous sentences; second, the
cost of enforcing contracts or laws is very high. Smart contracts can be automatically executed by programming languages that meet trigger conditions, and are expected to solve these two major problems in the current legal system
. Of course, if you're not a programmer, it may take a while to read the contract at first, but once you learn how to read it, it's
definitely more accessible than the existing contracts drafted by lawyers. In this way, simple contracts can be drafted by ordinary users
, and special contracts may need to be drafted by slightly more experienced experts (just like complex traditional contracts also require specialized lawyers to draft)
. As a result, the contract we got completely eliminates the misunderstanding of "I think, you think", and the uncertainty of whether the contracting parties are legally
performing the contract is also eliminated. That is to say, the contract written in the code not only defines the contract content, but also ensures
the . In essence, this contract is really a contract that won't break, and that's very powerful.
In the early days, smart contracts will first take root in the fields involving digital assets such as virtual currency, websites, software, digital content, cloud services, etc.,
because the "enforcement" of digital assets is very direct and effective. However, over time, smart contracts will gradually penetrate into the "real
world ". For example, a car with some kind of rental agreement based on a smart contract can be started with some kind of digital certificate (instead of a traditional car key
). And if the digital certificate doesn't comply with the lease agreement (for example, when the certificate expires), the car won't start.
In a future world where private and public law can be perfectly monitored and enforced, many things are possible. You can imagine a small town where local
laws are made by smart contracts. In this small town, the passage of new laws and amendments to existing laws must be resolved
by , which is also implemented by smart contracts. At the same time, the residents of the town will be very aware of the enforcement and application of the
law . You can even imagine a country that does not rely on geographic boundaries but is based on smart contract regulations and rights. In the future,
people can even freely choose the most suitable virtual country for themselves.
From the perspective of the future, today's current legal system looks as primitive as blood. We have a long list of legal provisions that
are . At the same time, we entered into contracts full of false personal promises and little hope of fulfillment. Therefore,
with the advent of smart contracts, a new form of law is about to be born.