Of course, I don't know of a better system, just that the current system seems archaic. (You probably couldn't create a centralized "contract bureau" in the fed

Of course, I don't know of a better system, just that the current system seems archaic. (You probably couldn't create a centralized "contract bureau" in the federal government, because many contracts are private, until someone sues.) Of course you can! Only submit a short cryptographic hash (summary), instead of the plaintext. Along with the digital public-key signatures of the signing parties. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptographic_hash_function https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptographic_hash_function https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_signature https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_signature You could even privatize it. There was at least one startup/concept like this on HN, but I forgot where. (edit): Here's one discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4618362 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4618362