8 ms·
Nobel Prize-winning economist joins blockchain startup to fix smart contracts
- badloginagain 8y agoIm highly suspicious of any blockchain startups given the cryptocurrency environment we live in. If this guy was part of the discussion for one of the main cryptocurrencies about governance, I'd be more excited.
- kornish 8y agoAs a senior advisor.
- bob_theslob646 8y agoExactly! Does not mean s*. The old "will you please be an advisor, we will give you some equity" routine. Hard to not take it with a grain of salt especially with the click bait title.
- darawk 8y agoThe title doesn't seem like click bait to me. He's being paid to actually work on the problem. He's not just some nebulous advisor - he will be consulting on the architecture of particular contracts. The title seems pretty appropriate.
- pastor_elm 8y agoBULLISH
- tarwater11 8y agoThere is no Nobel Prize in Economics.
- duckerude 8y agoHe won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, which (as far as I can tell) was established later than the other prizes but is managed together with them with the same foundation and ceremony and so on. Is the distinction between it and other Nobel prizes useful here?
- fwn 8y agoIt is relevant since the Nobel prize in economics indicates academic achievements in the field of economics. If it would've been a Nobel prize winner for peace there would be little signal attached to it regarding the economic quality of the block chain project.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- neilwilson 8y agoYes. It is funded by the Swedish Central Bank. Would you trust a Nobel prize in computing funded by Google?
- fwn 8y agoFunding rarely determines process or outcome. It's a common argument, but unworldly, given that there are huge amounts of largely autonomous institutions that rely on single donors, may it be public or private money.
- hoonose 8y agoYes. The closest thing to the Nobel Prize in computing is the Turing Award, which is indeed funded by Google.
- dsr_ 8y agoAlthough it is not Google who decides on who wins, and the Award would still be reputationally valuable if there were no money attached to it.
- _pRwn_ 8y agoThere is no Nobel Prize in Economics. There's only the "Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences" which was established in 1968 by a donation from Sweden's central bank.
- lazerpants 8y agoAnd commonly referred to as the Nobel Prize in Economics.
- sgift 8y agoUsually by people who want to give it credibility it doesn't deserve. There's probably a reason no science felt the need to name their price almost like an existing in the hope of being associated with it.
- gamblor956 8y agoIt's referred to as a Nobel Prize by the Nobel Foundation itself, which also selects the winners...
- sgift 8y agoThe foundation adopted it. Which is kind of my point.
- gamblor956 8y agoNo, there was no "X" prize that was adopted by the Nobel Foundation. They were offered a donation to fund the prize in the area of Economics, and they did. The prize itself has always been run by the Nobel Foundation. It may not have been one of the original Nobel Prizes, but everyone who matters, including the prize-issuing organization itself, considers it to be one of the current Nobel Prizes. This is no different from, say, the Olympics--would you not consider snowboarding, boxing, weightlifting, wrestling, or volleyball (to name some of the most popular current events) to be Olympic events simply because they were not part of the first games in 1896? Conversely, should croquet and tug-of-war be considered Olympic sports even though they haven't been part of the games for over a century?
- frostyj 8y agoOk just tell me which coin is that and where do I buy it :)
- al_ramich 8y agopretty strange career choice although if his intentions are to impact the way smart contracts shape up in the future it could be a good move. His intentions will certainly be tested by VC intentions to make money for the investors.
- root_axis 8y agoSmart contracts are DOA, it's not an economic issue, it's a technical one; the rules of the smart contract can only be enforced on the blockchain, any concerns outside of that must necessarily fall back on the traditional legal system for enforcement thus eliminating any utility the smart contract intends to provide. edit: I'm not saying there is no value in systems of arbitration outside the traditional legal system, I'm saying that a blockchain is super wasteful and expensive relative to a centralized system that can accomplish the same guarantees because they share the same legal underpinning, i.e. the courts. There is no legal difference between a smart contract and word document.
- TomMarius 8y agoWhy specifically traditional legal system? We have things like credit card anti fraud or arbitration courts that work outside of it. Of course these entities need a way to enforce their rulings, but this issue is built into the traditional legal systems, not smart contracts, and can be changed (no idea how to do it correctly, though - just like we're not yet sure how to do smart contracts correctly). Also, saying that there is no utility because in some edge cases, a traditional system is required, that's like saying a computer is useless because sometimes you need to have things on a paper.
- CPLX 8y ago> We have things like credit card anti fraud or arbitration courts that work outside of it. These things are within, and subordinate to, the legal system.
- sandworm101 8y ago>> These things are within, and subordinate to, the legal system. Small point: They are not within. They are private arrangements in addition to the legal system. They are creations of contract between individuals and represent the wills of only those individuals. The legal system is created by legislatures and legal societies (bars), bound by ethical rules, and are representative of the people generally. The distinction is important. People should not think that arbitration committees or VISA's dispute resolution process is in any way part of the legal system. The legal system belongs to the country, to the democracy. Arbitration services belong only to themselves.
- puranjay 8y agoEli5: How do smart contracts change anything when their enforcement has to be performed by legacy systems? In my country, drafting contracts is hardly a problem. But if someone breaches your contract, good luck trying to get the law to act on it quickly enough
- acover 8y agoOne way is that possession is handled automatically and immediately. Also, the terms of the contract are not open to interpretation.
- darawk 8y agoFor one, there are certain classes of contract that can be enforced entirely on-chain. Specifically, those having to do with crypto-assets themselves and, possibly, any asset ownership represented by the crypto-tokens. For two, smart contracts are code, and as such have to be more formally specified than a traditional english-language contract. This has benefits and also drawbacks, but for certain applications it may be useful.
- smokeyj 8y agoBasically by not relying on legacy systems. Collateralize your contracts on-chain with an agreed arbitrator in the contract. The other solution is to be locally compliant. Cities are looking to use “blockchain” to issue “micro-bonds”. I’m sure you can draft legalese to refer to data on a blockchain. See blockchain notary services.
- sharemywin 8y agoit would be interesting if contracts(legal ones) had version control. Here's a base contract 1.0.0 and you can fork it and add/subtract sections, change wording etc.