IIF Authors

Status: Will be live at 05/11/2016 00:00

Getting Smart: Contracts on the Blockchain

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Enabled by blockchain technology, the possibilities surrounding smart contracts are far-reaching and could significantly impact the finance industry and the economy as a whole moving forward. Thanks to the technological characteristics of smart contracts-namely the ability to securely receive, store and send both information and value based on predetermined rules and conditions mutually agreed to by contract counterparties-they could help decentralize the model of trust, speed up settlement times, reduce the need for costly intermediaries, enhance transparency, automate processes, reduce legal disputes, mitigate risk, and become the norm for countless types of transactions. However, for smart contracts to achieve this potential and become widely adopted by the mainstream economy, issues regarding legal legitimacy, regulation, technical viability, and the standardization and broad-based implementation of distributed ledger technology will need to be addressed.'

Blockchain for Smart Contracts