4 ms·

> Those who find themselves on the other side of this power disparity would often prefer to risk a potentially buggy but inviolate contract than one which they

by ekidd 4y ago

> Those who find themselves on the other side of this power disparity would often prefer to risk a potentially buggy but inviolate contract than one which they expect to be abused against them. There is no way that AT&T, Comcast or Bank of America will ever agree to a smart contract written by an ordinary customer. As always, the companies will write their own contracts, and customers will either accept them, or leave. And if the company has monopoly power, tough luck.

chii 4y ago
so what happens if the company's smart contract has a bug in it, and the customer takes advantage of it? In an analogous situation, if a shop mis-labels the price of an item (let's say, they forgot a zero or two for a $1000 item), the customer theoretically has the legal basis to purchase it at the labeled price. How is this scenario any different to a block chain contract with a bug?
- vageli 4y ago
  If a site has prices stored on the frontend and a user edits the price to make it lower, do you think the user has a legal basis to receive the item at their new specified price? I don't think many jurisdictions would say they do. Further, in many places your example itself falls apart. https://smallbusiness.chron.com/company-advertising-price-wrong-responsible-mistake-73117.html https://smallbusiness.chron.com/company-advertising-price-wr... https://www.findlaw.com/smallbusiness/business-contracts-forms/is-an-advertisement-an-offer.html https://www.findlaw.com/smallbusiness/business-contracts-for...
  - nybble41 4y ago
    > If a site has prices stored on the frontend and a user edits the price to make it lower, do you think the user has a legal basis to receive the item at their new specified price? There was a case like that in the early days of online shopping, which was actually decided in favor of the customer. The prices of items in the shopping cart were stored in form fields, and the customer edited them before placing the order. The court considered that a counter-offer which was accepted by the store. (It probably wouldn't go that way today; for one thing online stores have gotten smarter about trusting data from the client.) That's a bit different from simply editing the client-side view and never informing the merchant about the change, of course.
    - chii 4y ago
      i would imagine that directly editing the price on the label is over the line, and the analogy breaks down when compared to smart contracts with bugs.

by ekidd 4y ago

chii 4y ago

so what happens if the company's smart contract has a bug in it, and the customer takes advantage of it? In an analogous situation, if a shop mis-labels the price of an item (let's say, they forgot a zero or two for a $1000 item), the customer theoretically has the legal basis to purchase it at the labeled price. How is this scenario any different to a block chain contract with a bug?

vageli 4y ago
If a site has prices stored on the frontend and a user edits the price to make it lower, do you think the user has a legal basis to receive the item at their new specified price? I don't think many jurisdictions would say they do. Further, in many places your example itself falls apart. https://smallbusiness.chron.com/company-advertising-price-wrong-responsible-mistake-73117.html https://smallbusiness.chron.com/company-advertising-price-wr... https://www.findlaw.com/smallbusiness/business-contracts-forms/is-an-advertisement-an-offer.html https://www.findlaw.com/smallbusiness/business-contracts-for...
- nybble41 4y ago
  > If a site has prices stored on the frontend and a user edits the price to make it lower, do you think the user has a legal basis to receive the item at their new specified price? There was a case like that in the early days of online shopping, which was actually decided in favor of the customer. The prices of items in the shopping cart were stored in form fields, and the customer edited them before placing the order. The court considered that a counter-offer which was accepted by the store. (It probably wouldn't go that way today; for one thing online stores have gotten smarter about trusting data from the client.) That's a bit different from simply editing the client-side view and never informing the merchant about the change, of course.
  - chii 4y ago
    i would imagine that directly editing the price on the label is over the line, and the analogy breaks down when compared to smart contracts with bugs.