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>Anything meaningful basically has to interact with the real world through agents external to the contract This is where people are betting to take a risk that

>Anything meaningful basically has to interact with the real world through agents external to the contract This is where people are betting to take a risk that the law will change to legalize and maybe even incorporate these contracts. Take a prenuptial agreement for example. Instead of having a lawyer, a smart contract could automatically split ether from an account into two addresses. https://www.coindesk.com/prenup-ethereum-marriage-obligations/ https://www.coindesk.com/prenup-ethereum-marriage-obligation...

flatline 9y ago
Something in the real world still has to trigger the divorce condition in the contract. By the time all the legal documents of the divorce are finalized I don't see why a written prenup would be inadequate. Besides nobody is going to store all their assets in etherium. Even if they did how would the contract track future earnings to another account, etc? It's a completely impractical solution to a problem well-served by current means. Like pretty much every other example I've heard. On-chain gambling is the only thing of practical value that I've seen Etherium offer so far.
will_brown 9y ago
Unless the smart contract doesn't split the funds, but directs them all to the husband, notwithstanding what the Wife believed the smart contract would do. But yes, young families should convert all their assets to ETH and tie it up in their prenuptial smart contract until they divorce because lawyers suck. But assuming the smart contract will actually split the amounts equally...how does the smart contract know when the parties marriage is dissolved? And money isn't the only thing involved in marriage, sometimes there are children, does the smart contract automatically split the children in half too or do we have to turn to the lawyers still?
AlexandrB 9y ago
> Instead of having a lawyer, a smart contract could automatically split ether from an account into two addresses. Ignoring the oracle problem, all this would take to work is the couple storing all their wealth in an asset that has an unknown (possibly negative) rate of return and unknown (possibly very low) liquidity.
dragonwriter 9y ago
> Instead of having a lawyer, a smart contract could automatically split ether from an account into two addresses. Which would replace a prenup only with an oracle for the conditions (which can be more complicated than just divorce, but even divorce is an off-chain event requiring an oracle) and, even then, only if ETH were the only assets owned by the couple.

flatline 9y ago

Something in the real world still has to trigger the divorce condition in the contract. By the time all the legal documents of the divorce are finalized I don't see why a written prenup would be inadequate. Besides nobody is going to store all their assets in etherium. Even if they did how would the contract track future earnings to another account, etc? It's a completely impractical solution to a problem well-served by current means. Like pretty much every other example I've heard. On-chain gambling is the only thing of practical value that I've seen Etherium offer so far.

will_brown 9y ago

Unless the smart contract doesn't split the funds, but directs them all to the husband, notwithstanding what the Wife believed the smart contract would do. But yes, young families should convert all their assets to ETH and tie it up in their prenuptial smart contract until they divorce because lawyers suck. But assuming the smart contract will actually split the amounts equally...how does the smart contract know when the parties marriage is dissolved? And money isn't the only thing involved in marriage, sometimes there are children, does the smart contract automatically split the children in half too or do we have to turn to the lawyers still?

AlexandrB 9y ago

> Instead of having a lawyer, a smart contract could automatically split ether from an account into two addresses. Ignoring the oracle problem, all this would take to work is the couple storing all their wealth in an asset that has an unknown (possibly negative) rate of return and unknown (possibly very low) liquidity.

dragonwriter 9y ago

> Instead of having a lawyer, a smart contract could automatically split ether from an account into two addresses. Which would replace a prenup only with an oracle for the conditions (which can be more complicated than just divorce, but even divorce is an off-chain event requiring an oracle) and, even then, only if ETH were the only assets owned by the couple.