Communications of the ACM
A Digital Court for a Digital Age
Researchers at Japan's University of Tokyo and Canada's University of British Columbia in Canada have created a mechanism that uses blockchain to settle legal disputes.
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Hitoshi Matsushima from the University of Tokyo in Japan and Shunya Noda from the University of British Columbia in Canada have created a mechanism that uses blockchain to settle legal disputes.
This so-called digital court would enable enforcement of contracts wherever a traditional legal court would settle legal disputes.
The blockchain is only invoked to maintain records of the parties' involvement with the agreement in question. This is important because even though ordinary smart contracts can dispense with an expensive third party to adjudicate a dispute, they still require some potentially costly interactions with the blockchain system.
Said Matsushima, "We have found a way to satisfy agreements without traditional legal enforcement or the long-term reciprocal relationships which might ordinarily keep the players honest. A digital court could be built on current blockchain platforms such as Ethereum, and it could happen right now.”
From University of Tokyo
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Abstracts Copyright © 2020 SmithBucklin, Washington, DC, USA
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