5) Technology Primer

5 Technology Primer

5 Technology Primer

In discussing the background on our research topic, we also decided to include a primer on the technologies (with an emphasis on Web3 technologies) applicable to automated music licensing. The technology primer will provide a basic information on:

Blockchain;
Smart Contracts;
InterPlanetary File System;
Application Programming Interfaces;
Data Oracles;
Decentralized Applications;
Digital Assets;
Non-fungible Tokens;
Linked Data;
Ricardian Contracts; and
Kleros’s ADR Protocol.

5.1 Blockchain

Blockchain⁷⁸¹ is an append-only database, often described as a trustless (also referred to as trust-minimization a or low-trust) system, that is secured by a peer-to-peer (p2p) computer network.⁷⁸² In the network, the blockchain is replicated so that each node has a copy of the blockchain.⁷⁸³ The main advantage of a blockchain is that it allows counterparties to transact in a secure manner without the need for a trusted third (or centralized) party.⁷⁸⁴ The term blockchain originates from Satoshi Nakamoto’s whitepaper, Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, though Satoshi Nakamoto never mentions the word blockchain in the whitepaper to describe the blockbased data structure.⁷⁸⁵

The blockchain data structure is an ordered list of blocks that each reference the previous block by the previous block’s cryptographic hash.⁷⁸⁶ Each block consists of a set of transactions⁷⁸⁷. ⁷⁸⁸ Once a new block is mined, each node will add the newly mined block to their copy of the blockchain.⁷⁸⁹ Once a block is appended to the blockchain, the newly-appended block cannot be removed or modi ed as to ensure the blockchain’s data integrity.⁷⁹⁰

⁷⁸¹Treiblmaier, “Toward More Rigorous Blockchain Research”; Julie Maupin, Jonas Kahlert, and Timo Honsel. “Blockchain: A World Without Middlemen?” In: 2019 (Blockchain is often used synonymously or interchangeably with Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and Horst Treiblmaier recommends also mentioning the term when discussing blockchain.).

⁷⁸²Bodó, Gervais, and Quintais, “Blockchain and smart contracts”; M.E. Burge. “Apple pay, bitcoin, and consumers: The ABCs of future public payments law”. In: Hastings Law Journal 67 (Aug. 2016), pp. 1493”1550.

⁷⁸³Alharby and Moorsel, “Blockchain Based Smart Contracts : A Systematic Mapping Study”.

⁷⁸⁴Ibid.

⁷⁸⁵Alharby and Moorsel, “Blockchain Based Smart Contracts : A Systematic Mapping Study”; Satoshi Nakamoto. “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”. In: Cryptography Mailing list at https://metzdowd.com (Oct. 2008); Treiblmaier, “Toward More Rigorous Blockchain Research”; Haugen and Engebretsen, “The Music Industry on Blockchain Technology”.

⁷⁸⁶Alharby and Moorsel, “Blockchain Based Smart Contracts : A Systematic Mapping Study”.

⁷⁸⁷Transactions is often used synonymously with data.

⁷⁸⁸Alharby and Moorsel, “Blockchain Based Smart Contracts : A Systematic Mapping Study”.

⁷⁸⁹Haugen and Engebretsen, “The Music Industry on Blockchain Technology”.

⁷⁹⁰Alharby and Moorsel, Blockchain Based Smart Contracts : A Systematic Mapping Study; Burge, Apple pay, bitcoin, and consumers: The ABCs of future public payments law; Garry Gabison. Policy Considerations for the Blockchain Technology Public and Private Applications. In: Southern Methodist University Science & Technology Law Review 19 (3 Aug. 2016), pp. 327350; Jake Frankenfield. Cryptocurrency. en. url: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cryptocurrency.asp (visited on 12/19/2019).

The first blockchain implementation, Bitcoin, mitigated two major problems:

double spending⁷⁹¹ , and
eliminating fraud, through the Proof of Work (PoW) mining algorithm and the Longest Chain Rule consensus algorithm⁷⁹² process.⁷⁸³

Mining is the process of authenticating and adding blocks of transactions to the blockchain, and is a means of stopping spam (i.e., anti-sybil measure).⁷⁹⁴Nodes on the p2p network mine (These specific nodes are called “miners ) attempt to solve a complex math problem by ordering transactions in a manner to have the hash of the block have a certain number of leading zeros.⁷⁹⁵ Once the problem is solved, the block can then be added to the Bitcoin blockchain.⁷⁹⁶ In exchange for authenticating and adding a block, miners are rewarded with new Bitcoins.⁷⁹⁷

To ensure that each node has the correct copy of the blockchain without a trusted intermediary, the Bitcoin blockchain also implements the Longest Chain Rule, a consensus algorithm on the state of the Bitcoin blockchain.⁷⁹⁸ In simplest terms, the longest chain rule will steer the nodes on the Bitcoin p2p network towards the blockchain which has the most work done, i.e., the chain that has the most computational effort supplied.⁷⁹⁹

The hash of each block maintains the integrity of the data stored in the blockchain.⁸⁰⁰ In a hashing algorithm, the input is an arbitrary amount of data that is mapped to an output of a unique, fixed-size number of bytes.⁸⁰² Since the output is unique for each input, it is nearly impossible to get the same hash for two different inputs.802 A new block primarily holds a set of transactions, an index, a timestamp, and a header.⁸⁰³ In the block header, there are two hashes:

the previous block’s hash, and
the current block’s hash.⁸⁰⁴

By requiring new blocks to reference the hash of the previous block, we obtain an immutable, sequential chain of transactions.⁸⁰⁵ If someone tried to change the contents of a block, that particular block’s cryptographic hash would change, and this would change the hashes of all the sequential blocks after the altered block.⁸⁰⁶ Thus, it becomes nigh impossible for one party to commit fraud because a fraudster would need to alter the copy of the blockchain for fifty-percent or greater (>50%) of the nodes, and that’s before a new block gets added to the blockchain .⁸⁰⁷

Horst Treiblmaier in Toward More Rigorous Blockchain Research: Recommendations for Writing Blockchain Case Studies, summarized the most important characteristics of blockchain as:

⁷⁹¹Burge, Apple pay, bitcoin, and consumers: The ABCs of future public payments law.

⁷⁹²Referring specifically to Bitcoin’s Proof-of-Work mining algorithm and Longest Chain consensus algorithm.

⁷⁹³Haugen and Engebretsen, The Music Industry on Blockchain Technology; Burge, Apple pay, bitcoin, and consumers: The ABCs of future public payments law; Frankenfield, Cryptocurrency.

⁷⁹⁴Gabison, Policy Considerations for the Blockchain Technology Public and Private Applications; Burge, Apple pay, bitcoin, and consumers: The ABCs of future public payments law; Frankeneld, Cryptocurrency.

⁷⁹⁵Johannes Mueller. Building Blockchains in R. Feb. 2018. url: https : / / www . datacamp . com / community / tutorials /blockchain-r (visited on 12/20/2019).

⁷⁹⁶Ibid.

⁷⁹⁷bid.

⁹⁹⁸Ibid.

⁷⁹⁹bid.

⁸⁰⁰Ibid.

⁸⁰¹Patrick Schueduel, Nikolaj Groeneweg, and Baldegger Rico. The Crypto Encyclopedia: Coins, Tokens and Digital Assets from A to Z. Aug. 2019. isbn: 978-2-940384-47-1.

⁸⁰²Mueller, Building Blockchains in R.

⁸⁰³Ibid.

⁸⁰⁴Ibid.

⁸⁰⁵Ibid.

⁸⁰⁶Mueller, Building Blockchains in R.

⁸⁰⁷bid. (Small window of time to make that happen, especially since a new block is added to the Bitcoin blockchain every ten (10) minutes.).

“[i]mmutability”,
“[t]ransparency”,
“[p]rogrammability”,
“[d]ecentralization”,
“[c]onsenus”, and
“[d]istributed trust.”⁸⁰⁸

Blockchains can be categorized based on a permission typology.⁸⁰⁹ In the permission typology, there are two types of blockchains, permissioned and permissionless⁸¹⁰ A permissionless blockchain is a blockchain in which anyone may read (examine transactions contained in blocks) and write (submit a transaction to be stored in a block) to the blockchain.⁸¹¹ A permissioned blockchain is a blockchain in which there is a restriction on who can read and/or write to the blockchain⁸¹² The issues with the current state of blockchain architecture, mentioned in the literature and in the industry, are readily summarized by Treiblmaier, and reproduced here for convenience:

“Throughput: Number of transactions being processed within a specific period of time.
Latency: Amount of time before a transaction is processed.
Size and bandwidth: The Blockchain grows over time as new blocks are constantly added. This also consumes considerable bandwidth for downloading data.
Wasted resources: Blockchain-intrinsic inefficiencies such as redundant data transmission, storage and energy-consuming consensus protocols.
Usability Users’: interactions with Blockchain applications.
Versioning: Hard forks, multiple chains. A multitude of Blockchain versions and forks facilitate attacks and hamper cross-transactions.
Privacy: The right to control access to (personal) information as well as to delete it.
Evidentiary quality: Trustworthiness of Records; Questions pertaining to the truthfulness of content on the Blockchain.
Lack of Standards: No standards have emerged yet for access rights, data structures and allowable transactions.
Regulations: Legislation is lagging behind technological development.
Shared governance: Blockchain solutions call for new structures that might disrupt existing governance.
Viable ecosystem: The attraction of a critical mass of adopters.
Attack Surface: The Blockchain as a target of potential attacks.”⁸¹³

The blockchain characteristics we explicitly sought to utilize in our research and in the creation of our Tokenized Music License (TML) were:

Immutability,
Transparency,

⁸⁰⁸Treiblmaier, “Toward More Rigorous Blockchain Research”.

⁸⁰⁹Ibid.

⁸¹⁰Ibid.

⁸¹¹Ibid.

⁸¹²Treiblmaier, “Toward More Rigorous Blockchain Research”.

⁸¹³Ibid.

Programmability, and
Decentralization.⁸¹⁴

We desired the immutability characteristic because we wanted to ensure that once an agreement is signed by the parties, the record of the transaction and signatures thereto cannot be modi ed in the future.⁸¹⁵

We desired the transparency characteristic because we wanted to make transactions with the TML publicly accessible so that potential parties can have a negotiating reference from the prior negotiations of other parties, to have proof that a transaction occurred and was validated, to help musicians and users have knowledge of and seek out the TML, and to mitigate against potential disputes arising over the content of the license (not necessarily the interpretation of the license) or confusion regarding whether a license has been signed.⁸¹⁶

We desired the programmability characteristic because we wanted to utilize smart contracts to guarantee the fulfillment of certain objective demands and requirements envisioned in the TML, optimize the licensing process by alleviating licensing costs and issues, and the need to ensure that the smart contracts embedded in the TML will execute with little to no worry for down-time.⁸¹⁷

We desired the decentralization characteristic because we believe decentralization will enable musicians to gain a greater foothold in the music industry’s value web by reducing the number of intermediaries needed to license their works. We expect that this will lead to fairer remuneration for musicians and will help alleviate concerns of collusion among music industry stakeholders whose interests do not align with the interests of musicians.⁸¹⁸

5.2 Smart Contracts

A smart contract is executable code stored on a blockchain to facilitate agreements among two or more parties that will automatically execute based on a set of prede ned conditions.⁸¹⁹ The idea of smart contracts came from Nick Szabo in 1994.⁸²⁰ According to Nick Szabo, despite the digital era creating entirely new tools, applying the known concepts of contract law may be key, given the rapid development of the modern world: By extracting from our current laws, procedures, and theories those principles which remain applicable in cyberspace, we can retain much of this deep tradition, and greatly shorten the time needed to develop useful digital institutions.”⁸²¹As Dariusz Szostek points out, smart contracts were de ned by the UK Government in 2016 in the report titled Distributed Ledger Technology: beyond block chain , where smart contracts were de ned as contracts whose terms are recorded in a computer language instead of legal language (…) can be automatically executed by a computing system, such as a suitable distributed ledger system [and having the bene ts of] low contracting, enforcement, and compliance costs; consequently it becomes economically viable to form contracts over numerous low-value transactions. ⁸²² Smart contracts did not truly become a viable option until the emergence of blockchain technology, and especially the Ethereum blockchain.

⁸¹⁴Ibid.

⁸¹⁵Ibid.

⁸¹⁶Ibid.

⁸¹⁷Ibid.

⁸¹⁸Treiblmaier, “Toward More Rigorous Blockchain Research”; Bodó, Gervais, and Quintais, “Blockchain and smart contracts; Sitonio and Nucciarelli, “The Impact of Blockchain on the Music Industry.

⁸¹⁹Smart Contracts. en-US. url: https://blockchainhub.net/smart-contracts/ (visited on 10/18/2019).

⁸²⁰Alharby and Moorsel, Blockchain Based Smart Contracts : A Systematic Mapping Study.

⁸²¹Nick Szabo. Formalizing and Securing Relationships on Public Networks | Satoshi Nakamoto Institute. url: https : / / nakamotoinstitute.org/formalizing-securing-relationships/ (visited on 10/18/2019).

⁸²²U.K. Government Chief Scientific Adviser. Distributed Ledger Technology: beyond block chain. Tech. rep. Government Oce of Science, 2016. url: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/492972/gs-16-1-distributed-ledger-technology.pdf.

5.3 InterPlantery File System (IPFS)

Distributed data storage is data stored among multiple devices rather than a single device. ⁸²³ Distributed peer-to-peer (p2p) data storage is a type of distributed storage where data is shared among the nodes on a p2p network. ⁸²⁴ The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is a project by Filecoin that enables distributed storage and transfer of files among nodes in a peer-to-peer network. ⁸²⁵ In the IPFS, file storage is distributed among the nodes on the network such that each node has a chunk of the file data, thereby ensuring that no single node holds a complete copy of a file. ⁸²⁶ To achieve the above, the IPFS implements a [D]istributed [H]ash [T]able (DHT) that allows “any participating node to efficiently retrieve the value associated with a given key.” ⁸²⁷ By relying on a p2p network, the DHT can scale to an “extremely large numbers of nodes and to handle continual node departures, arrivals and failures.” ⁸²⁸ A major advantage of using the IPFS is that it ensures that a node requesting a file will receive it from the closest nodes storing the file, thereby making file retrieval faster. ⁸²⁹

5.4 Application Programming Interface (API) and Data Oracles

An application programming interface (API) is a software intermediary that allows interaction between two distinct software programs, i.e., how one software application can request another software application to provide a service.⁸³⁰ In general, API often refers to web-based APIs, APIs that provide a connectivity interface for applications to communicate with servers over web protocols such as Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and the use of JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format.⁸³¹ For example, when an end user authenticates their identity on a software application via their Facebook pro le or email address, they are utilizing an API that interfaces between the software application and Facebook or their email provider.⁸³²

There are three types of APIs:

public,
private, and
partnership.⁸³³

A public API is an API that is accessible to developers or the public (developers, startups, governments, etc.) on a free or structured freemium basis (e.g., a limited number of API calls per month).⁸³⁴ A private API is an API that is only used internally within an organization.⁸³⁵ A partner API is a platform-esque API that multiple organizations can integrate within their systems.⁸³⁶

⁸²³Ledgerback Cooperative. My Data! My Rules! en. Sept. 2019. url: https://medium.com/the-backers/my-data-my-rules60890ffa0e56 (visited on 12/20/2019); Eugene Cheah. Explain Distributed Storage - and how it goes down for github / uilicious / cloud / etc. en. url: https://dev.to/uilicious/explain-distributed-storage—and-how-it-goes-down-for-github–uilicious–cloud–etc-1mni (visited on 12/20/2019).

⁸²⁴Cooperative, My Data! My Rules!; Cheah, Explain Distributed Storage - and how it goes down for github / uilicious / cloud / etc.

⁸²⁵Cooperative, My Data! My Rules!; Cheah, Explain Distributed Storage - and how it goes down for github / uilicious / cloud / etc.

⁸²⁶Cooperative, My Data! My Rules!; Cheah, Explain Distributed Storage - and how it goes down for github / uilicious / cloud / etc.

⁸²⁷Cooperative, My Data! My Rules!; Cheah, Explain Distributed Storage - and how it goes down for github / uilicious / cloud / etc.

⁸²⁸Cooperative, My Data! My Rules!; Cheah, *Explain Distributed Storage - and how it goes down for github / uilicious / cloud / etc.

⁸²⁹Cooperative, My Data! My Rules!; Cheah, Explain Distributed Storage - and how it goes down for github / uilicious / cloud / etc.

⁸³⁰What is an API? (Application Programming Interface). en. url: https://www.mulesoft.com/resources/api/what-is-an-api (visited on 10/18/2019).

⁸³¹Ibid.

⁸³²Ibid.

⁸³³What is an API?. en-US. url: https://nordicapis.com/focus-topics/what-is-an-api/ (visited on 10/18/2019).

⁸³⁴Ibid.

⁸³⁵What is an API?.

⁸³⁶Ibid.

Data oracles (“oracles”) are data providers, akin to application programming interfaces (APIs), that input external information into smart contracts on a blockchain.⁸³⁷ Oracles are very powerful because they not only control what information gets inputted into the blockchain, they also determine which functions a smart-contract will execute in response to the information⁸³⁸

5.5 Decentralized Applications (DApps)

Decentralized applications (commonly known as dApps or DApps, but for this report, DApp shall be used) are becoming increasingly popular in the blockchain ecosystem, and are deemed the biggest application of smart contract platforms such as Ethereum and EOS.⁸³⁹ DApps are applications that run on peer-to-peer (P2P) computer networks, and for our purposes, applications that run on a blockchain P2P network.⁸⁴⁰DApps provide several advantages over traditional web applications, such as decentralization (no single entity can shut it down) and open source (the source code is available to the public).⁸⁴¹ Blockchain DApps, at least in their current form, are Web3-enabled websites (websites that interact with blockchains) that use smart contracts and the blockchain as the backend for web applications .⁸⁴²

5.6 Digital Assets

We shall introduce three types of digital assets:

cryptocurrencies,
tokens, and
stablecoins.

A cryptocurrency (also known as a coin) is a digital token (often the rst token and is considered the native token) created on a blockchain, that operates as a medium of exchange, in which supply growth is constrained through mining or a similar process.⁸⁴³ A token is a digital token created on a blockchain, that is a digital representation of a real or virtual asset, rights, or unit of value⁸⁴⁴ Common token standards are ERC-20 and ERC-721 on the Ethereum blockchain.⁸⁴⁵ A stablecoin is a digital token that is collateralized by an underlying asset to maintain a relatively stable price.⁸⁴⁶

5.7 Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs)

Non-fungible⁸⁴⁷ tokens (NFTs) are unique tokens meant to represent digital assets, commonly based on the ERC-721 standard, that have a “name, a description, and a URI.”⁸⁴⁸ The ERC-721 is a standard on the Ethereum

⁸³⁷Delphi. The Oracle Problem. en. July 2017. url: https : / / medium . com / @DelphiSystems / the - oracle - problem -856ccbdbd14f (visited on 10/18/2019).

⁸³⁸bid.

⁸³⁹Rick D. Number of DApps on Ethereum and EOS Soaring, Yet Usage Lags. en-US. Jan. 2019. url: https://www.newsbtc.com/2019/01/07/dapps-ethereum-eos/ (visited on 10/18/2019).

⁸⁴⁰What is a dApp? Decentralized Application on the Blockchain. en-US. url: https://blockchainhub.net/decentralizedapplications-dapps/ (visited on 10/18/2019).

⁸⁴¹Ibid.

⁸⁴²Ibid.

⁸⁴³What is Cryptocurrency. Guide for Beginners. en. url: https://cointelegraph.com/bitcoin-for-beginners/what-arecryptocurrencies (visited on 10/18/2019); Schueel, Groeneweg, and Rico, The Crypto Encyclopedia: Coins, Tokens and Digital Assets from A to Z.

⁸⁴⁴Haugen and Engebretsen, “The Music Industry on Blockchain Technology; Schueduel, Groeneweg, and Rico, The Crypto Encyclopedia: Coins, Tokens and Digital Assets from A to Z(Though, tokens can be used to represent anything.).

⁸⁴⁵Haugen and Engebretsen, “The Music Industry on Blockchain Technology”.

⁸⁴⁶Kyle Ellicott. An Overview of Stablecoins. en. Sept. 2019. url: https://medium.com/coinmonks/an-overview-of-stablecoins-fed7553fb25b (visited on 12/20/2019).

⁸⁴⁷Haugen and Engebretsen, “The Music Industry on Blockchain Technology” (“[Non-f]ungible refers to something that can[not] be replaced by another item.”).

⁸⁴⁸John Gordon. NIFTY Blockchain Gaming Thoughts. en. Aug. 2018. url: https://medium.com/@jagordon/nifty-blockchain-gaming-thoughts-92075a4f934a (visited on 10/18/2019).

blockchain that defines a minimum interface a smart contract must implement to allow unique tokens to be managed, owned, and traded. ⁸⁴⁹ NFTs are generally created for one-of-a-kind collectibles, and can represent anything ranging from art, in-game items, tickets, to even digital pets (e.g., CryptoKitties)⁸⁵⁰

Other than the ERC-721 standard, there is also the ERC-1155 and ERC-998 standards for NFTs.⁸⁵¹ The ERC-1155 standard was developed by Enjin, a blockchain videogames and wallet company.⁸⁵² ERC-1155 standard allows the ID eld to represent a class of assets, rather than a single asset.⁸⁵³ The advantage over ERC-721 that ERC-1155 provides is that it is cheaper to transfer multiple assets (e.g., a single transfer operation to transfer 1,000 items, rather than 1,000 transfer options to transfer 1,000 items).⁸⁵⁴ The disadvantage is that it is no longer possible to track a single asset within the class⁸⁵⁵ The ERC-998 standard (aka Composables), is a standard that allows NFTs to own other digital assets (non-fungible and fungible).⁸⁵⁶

5.8 Linked Data

Linked Data (LD) is a design approach to connect machine-readable, interlinked resources across the Semantic Web, i.e., the web of data, via technologies such as Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) and the Resource Description Framework (RDF).⁸⁵⁷ The Semantic Web refers to an extended functionality of the WorldWideWeb where data is interlinked and machine-readable by adding additional data descriptors to existing content on the web.⁸⁵⁸ URIs are unique identifiers for any type of content or data utilizing a single global identification system.⁸⁵⁹ RDF is a model for data publishing and interchange developed by the WorldWideWeb Consortium (W3C).⁸⁶⁰ In RDF, all data is published in a database as a triplestore. Triplestores materialize the links between data through a subject, predicate (or verb) and object linked model (subject > predicate > object).⁸⁶¹

The four principles of LD are:

“Use URIs as names for things”;
“Use HTTP URIs so that people can look up these names”;
“When someone looks up a URI, provide useful information, using standards (RDF, SPARQL)”; and
“Include links to other URIs so that they can discover more things.”⁸⁶²

An example project working with Linked Data is SoLiD, another project by Sir Tim Berners Lee, in which the LD approach defines the relationships among data by:

by having a uniform resource location (URL) for each piece of data, and
explicitly stating how each piece of data is related to each other.⁸⁶³

⁸⁴⁹ERC-721. url: http://erc721.org/ (visited on 10/18/2019).

⁸⁵⁰Gordon, NIFTY Blockchain Gaming Thoughts.

⁸⁵¹dfinzer. The Non-Fungible Token Bible: Everything you need to know about NFTs. en-US. Jan. 2020. url: https://opensea.io/blog/guides/non-fungible-tokens/ (visited on 05/15/2020).

⁸⁵²Ibid.

⁸⁵³Ibid.

⁸⁵⁴Ibid.

⁸⁵⁵Ibid.

⁸⁵⁶Ibid.

⁸⁵⁷What are Linked Data and Linked Open Data? en-US. url: https://ontotext.com/knowledgehub/fundamentals/linkeddata-linked-open-data/ (visited on 09/14/2019); Introduction to the Solid Specication | Solid.

⁸⁵⁸What Is the Semantic Web? en-US. url: https://ontotext.com/knowledgehub/fundamentals/what-is-the-semanticweb/ (visited on 09/14/2019).

⁸⁵⁹What are Linked Data and Linked Open Data?

⁸⁶⁰What is RDF Triplestore? en-US. url: https://ontotext.com/knowledgehub/fundamentals/what-is-rdf-triplestore/ (visited on 09/14/2019).

⁸⁶¹Ibid.

⁸⁶²What are Linked Data and Linked Open Data? *; Sir Tim Berners Lee. *Linked Data - Design Issues. url: https://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html (visited on 10/18/2019).

⁸⁶³What are Linked Data and Linked Open Data? ; Lee, Linked Data - Design Issues; Introduction to the Solid Specication | Solid

5.9 Ricardian Contracts

Ricardian Contracts (RC) are semi-automated, human- and machine-readable contracts that are expressed and executed as software, with the parties signing the contract via cryptographic signatures⁸⁶⁴ RCs were first conceptualized by Ian Grigg in 1995.⁸⁶⁵ RCs utilize markup language for combining legal prose with machinereadable tags.⁸⁶⁶ The goal is to automate generally objective terms so that they may be performed by software programs, while leaving subjective language to be determined by the parties.⁸⁶⁷

The Accord Project, OpenLaw, Clause, and other similar projects are developing software stacks and standards for RCs.⁸⁶⁸ With the emergence of such software, users will be able to draft legal prose in markup language that interacts with blockchains, the Semantic Web, and other software.⁸⁶⁹ Though these platforms are in their infancy, they represent the potential for RCs to dramatically change contract management.⁸⁷⁰ DocuSign, a member of the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance and the Accord project, has implemented two RC-related services that interact with the Ethereum blockchain.⁸⁷¹ The first service is a document verification service that allows anyone to verify a DocuSign agreement exists (or compare the authenticity of a copy of the agreement) via a hash of the original DocuSign agreement stored on the Ethereum blockchain.⁸⁷² The second service is providing a Trust Service Provider model for projects that work on digital identity management to integrate their blockchain application with DocuSign’s platform.⁸⁷³

⁸⁶⁴Chohan, “What Is a Ricardian Contract?”

⁸⁶⁵Ricardian contracts: A smarter way to do smart contracts? en. url: https://www.schoenherr.eu/publications/publication-detail/ricardian-contracts-a-smarter-way-to-do-smart-contracts/ (visited on 10/18/2019); Dmitri Koteshov. Smart vs. Ricardian Contracts: What’s the Dierence? en-US. Feb. 2018. url: https://www.elinext.com/industries/financial/trends/smart-vs-ricardian-contracts/ (visited on 10/18/2019); I. Grigg. “The Ricardian contract”. In: Proceedings. First IEEE International Workshop on Electronic Contracting, 2004. San Diego, CA, USA: IEEE, 2004, pp. 25”31. isbn: 9780769521848. doi: 10.1109/WEC.2004.1319505. url: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1319505/ (visited on 10/18/2019).

⁸⁶⁶Ricardian contracts; Dmitri Koteshov, Smart vs. Ricardian Contracts; Grigg, “The Ricardian contract”; What is a Ricardian Contract? en. July 2017. url: https://www.r3.com/blog/what-is-a-ricardian-contract/ (visited on 10/18/2019).

⁸⁶⁷Ricardian contracts; Dmitri Koteshov, Smart vs. Ricardian Contracts; Grigg, “The Ricardian contract”; What is a Ricardian Contract?

⁸⁶⁸Accord Project. url: https://www.accordproject.org/ (visited on 10/18/2019); Overview | OpenLaw Docs. url: https://docs.openlaw.io/ (visited on 10/18/2019); Clause Inc. url: https://clause.io/ (visited on 10/18/2019).

⁸⁶⁹Accord Project.

⁸⁷⁰Ricardian contracts.

⁸⁷¹Daniel Zhang. DocuSign and Blockchain. en. Text. June 2018. url: https://www.docusign.com/products/blockchain (visited on 10/18/2019).

⁸⁷²Zhang, DocuSign and Blockchain.

⁸⁷³Ibid.