> Essentially what we are talking about is a real democratization of contractual agreements. Whereas today contracts are restricted to deals with enough value to justify a lawyers time (mortgages, business deals, land transfer etc…), in the future there is no limit to what could be codified into simple contracts. You could imagine forming a self-enforcing contract around something as simple as sharing a lawnmower with your neighbor, hiring a babysitter, or forming a gourmet coffee club at work.
Contracts are already totally democratized. A simple verbal agreement pertaining to lawn tools is already an enforceable contract, as is a simple English statement of terms. I don't see how making it into a programming language doesn't make it less democratic. I don't know if you had noticed, but programmers are more expensive than lawyers now.
Of course simple contracts aren't "self enforcing" but I fail to see how crypto anything helps here. How does that make your neighbor return your lawnmower?
exactly this. If the conditions were clear and unambiguous as to whether a contract's term was satisfied or not, there would be no need for lawsuits to enforce a breach.
It's precisely because of the enormous ambiguity in human affairs, even when both parties are acting entirely in good faith, that hundreds of years of contract law exists, and courts and lawyers and lawsuits and police to enforce them.
The OP's example -- publish three blog posts -- is so trivial that it's hardly even worth discussing as a contract. "Paint my house" is a typical example in first year contracts and it's fodder for all kinds of problems and issues and exceptions: was the house painted? On time? Proper color as specified in the contract ["that's not blue!" "of course it is, says so right here on the can" "No it's not" etc]?
Bitcoin and other crypto currencies are interesting as a cheap escrow mechanism, but it still requires a neutral third party to verify that the conditions are satisfied and release the funds.
Actually the advantage of bitcoin escrow is that the third party only has to get involved if the first two parties have a dispute. Otherwise they can release the funds all by themselves.
"Keeping money in escrow" is a big no-no. There is a huge difference between paying $X at the completion of the contract versus putting $X in escrow right now to be released later; the whole point of 'paying at date Y' is that you should be able to pay with money you don't have yet but will earn on Y-1.
Cash flow is cruicial for most businesses, freezing funds in escrow for weeks or months is expensive and often impossible for many smaller businesses who have limited lines of credit.
How would you feel if you'd be asked to put in escrow all your bill payments that would be due sometime in the next month ?
Contracts are already totally democratized. A simple verbal agreement pertaining to lawn tools is already an enforceable contract, as is a simple English statement of terms. I don't see how making it into a programming language doesn't make it less democratic. I don't know if you had noticed, but programmers are more expensive than lawyers now.
Of course simple contracts aren't "self enforcing" but I fail to see how crypto anything helps here. How does that make your neighbor return your lawnmower?