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Smart contracts are not going to instantly replace government with a techno-libertarian utopia. They are going to make government, lawyer and bank services a lo

Smart contracts are not going to instantly replace government with a techno-libertarian utopia. They are going to make government, lawyer and bank services a lot less necessary. And, they are going to provide a lot of alternative services to people without access to effective government/financial services. Smart contracts can’t observe anything but time, crypto and signaling from users/automated services. For disputes you need an independent third party to cast a deciding vote. A government judge is common option. But, you and I can agree to grant that vote to a non-government agent instead. Legal rental contracts are non-trivial. A rental smart contract would similarly require more rules than we care to spell out here. But, “If the tenant and the notary both vote that there is bullshittery going on with the property, rent is suspended.” sounds like a reasonable thing to include.

smt88 5y ago
> They are going to make government, lawyer and bank services a lot less necessary. All the benefits of smart contracts are available with regular old software. Why hasn't software destroyed these services already? > “If the tenant and the notary both vote that there is bullshittery going on with the property, rent is suspended.” sounds like a reasonable thing to include. Why do you need a smart contract for this? The tenant can do this right now without any software help or public ledger.
leereeves 5y ago
> “If the tenant and the notary both vote that there is bullshittery going on with the property, rent is suspended.” First, I think the word you're looking for is arbitrator. Notaries don't resolve disputes. Second, you've simply replaced a judge with a "notary", and left many questions unanswered. Who is this trusted 3rd party? How are they accountable? Can you appeal their judgements? Do they have an ongoing business relationship with one of the parties? And so on. I suspect that by the time you've answered all those questions, and dealt with all the issues that arise that require human judgement, you'll have reinvented government. Or worse, digitized mandatory arbitration.
jonhendry18 5y ago
"They are going to make government, lawyer and bank services a lot less necessary." Except when a third party finds bugs in the smart contract code and diverts the rent payments to themselves.

smt88 5y ago

> They are going to make government, lawyer and bank services a lot less necessary. All the benefits of smart contracts are available with regular old software. Why hasn't software destroyed these services already? > “If the tenant and the notary both vote that there is bullshittery going on with the property, rent is suspended.” sounds like a reasonable thing to include. Why do you need a smart contract for this? The tenant can do this right now without any software help or public ledger.

leereeves 5y ago

> “If the tenant and the notary both vote that there is bullshittery going on with the property, rent is suspended.” First, I think the word you're looking for is arbitrator. Notaries don't resolve disputes. Second, you've simply replaced a judge with a "notary", and left many questions unanswered. Who is this trusted 3rd party? How are they accountable? Can you appeal their judgements? Do they have an ongoing business relationship with one of the parties? And so on. I suspect that by the time you've answered all those questions, and dealt with all the issues that arise that require human judgement, you'll have reinvented government. Or worse, digitized mandatory arbitration.

jonhendry18 5y ago

"They are going to make government, lawyer and bank services a lot less necessary." Except when a third party finds bugs in the smart contract code and diverts the rent payments to themselves.