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And for thousands of years humans got on with no written contracts at all. That doesn’t change the fact that as society evolves there are good reasons for agree

And for thousands of years humans got on with no written contracts at all. That doesn’t change the fact that as society evolves there are good reasons for agreements to evolve with it. I’m sure the first hundred years or so of written contracts there were people rolling their eyes at the idea and others “doing it wrong”. It’s possible (likely?) we’ll reach a point where strong properly implemented digital signatures are considered table stakes. This stuff is hard but probably worth it ultimately.

D13Fd 3y ago
> This stuff is hard but probably worth it ultimately. I think you're understating "hard." What about the large proportion of contracts that are still signed in paper? (All of those waivers you fill out at the doctor's office? Paper. Buy a car? Paper. Mortgage? Paper. Hire a contractor for your house? Paper.) Is your scheme going to render those invalid? Are we outlawing paper agreements? Consider also: * Many people do not have a computer or smartphone. * Any scheme (particularly one that does not involve pretty hardcore identify verification) is going to suffer from most of the same limitations as a regular e-signature, in that either side can claim that it wasn't actually them who clicked the button. * Technology changes rapidly and the entities that are most involved in contracts change very slowly. * Corporations have a huge incentive to push back on anything that adds friction to customers signing contracts. Do you think we'll really push through all of that, just to fight the extremely uncommon circumstance where a party denies that they signed a contract? Especially where cryptographic signatures wouldn't even fully solve the problem? I think it's unlikely.
- eduction 3y ago
  Yes!