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How To Interpret A Vending Machine: Smart Contracts And Contract Law, Gregory Klass

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

A smart contract is software designed to do the job of a legal contract: ensuring the performance of parties who might not otherwise trust one another to do so. By running a smart contract on blockchain, users can lock themselves into future performances without relying on a third-party enforcer or platform host, thereby realizing a “fully trustless” exchange. This new technology has wide range of potential applications, and contracts are likely to become an increasingly common part of the economy.

Some have argued that smart contracts represent a new type of legal contract, analogizing the software’s code to a contractual …