#smartcontractexperts

TrustaBit is a software solution that allows airlines to automatically issue travel vouchers to passengers. For example, as soon as a flight is canceled, delayed or overbooked, TrustaBit will initiate automatic compensation to the passenger, according to the defined business rules (aka smart contracts). The best part is that this blockchain process is automated, so you don’t have to go through the laborious process of sending off tickets and filling in lengthy forms to claim a voucher.

TrustaBit is currently in the seed stage. Saritta Hines,founder and chief executive officer of TrustaBit, said: “While we cannot disclose any names, I can tell you that we are working hard to establish a strong network of strategic partnerships with airline industry leaders.”

Adoption and awareness are the company’s biggest challenges, according to Hines, who added: “Blockchain technology is still largely associated with Bitcoin and, as you may know, Bitcoin has received a good amount of bad press. As CEO of TrustaBit, it is my responsibility to make companies more aware of the benefits of the technology, as well as educate them on potential pitfalls and how to avoid them.”

“The internet is a great example. In the .com era, many assumed that the internet was filled with cat videos, spam sites and suspicious emails. This was half true. Indeed, there were nefarious sites, spam emails (and cat videos), but there were also many sites that provide invaluable services – things we could not imagine living without today. Now, we all know not to click on email links from users we do not know and do not use password1234 as our password!”  

Enacting unnecessary new legislation (and triggering the associated compliance costs) would undermine confidence in the legally binding status of the digital signature and associated record. New laws could potentially bog down e-commerce.

The Chamber of Digital Commerce has investigated the legal underpinnings of these laws and concluded that enactment of state legislation regarding smart contracts is unnecessary and potentially undermines the growth of the industry.

There are, however, specific legal situations that are not covered by ESIGN and UETA. These include, for example, wills, codicils, testamentary trusts, official court documents, and documents related to family law matters, which should not affect everyday commerce.

The Chamber of Digital Commerce applauds and supports those legislators who are ahead of their contemporaries in understanding the value of this technology and seeking ways to support it. Such action demonstrates their astute sense of the continued success of blockchain technology.

Nevertheless, we caution that this particular course is unnecessary and potentially detrimental to a stable and consistent understanding of the treatment of smart contracts under law. As we wrote in our legal primer on smart contracts:

Landsec buys, sells, develops and manages property in the UK. The group is listed on the London Stock Exchange with the ticker LAND, and it tracked by FTSE 100 index. Landsec has developed some of UK’s largest malls and properties. It owns properties like Piccadilly Lights and Piccadilly Circus in London.

The company’s chief executive said that blockchain would “absolutely” have a function in the business. Landsec has to manage a wide range of contracts, from hiring contractors to leasing properties, and contract management would be the first area where the distributed ledger technology (DLT) could help the property group.

Robert Noel, speaking about Landsec’s position on blockchain technology, said:

“Absolutely... If you look at the way what we provide, which is services to business, and those services are around contract, anything that speeds up archaic land law, and contract law, and leasing law, etcetera, will be welcomed.”

“And so I'm absolutely sure that there will be progress in that sphere,” he added.

Blockchain is being tested in various sectors, especially in the financial, supply chain management, and logistics fields. However, the technology is flexible and has a broad application, just like the internet.

Currently, several companies are already experimenting with blockchain in the land and property market. For instance, Alibaba’s subsidiary Ant Financials will use smart contracts to streamline rental property management.

Jincor project, founded by Vlad Kirichenko and Vagan Abelyan, develops a platform that will allow businesses to create and deploy legally binding smart contracts in as easy way as possible.

Businesses will not have to worry about hiring expensive developers or security experts in order to create a proper smart contract. The Jincor platform will allow them to choose smart contract templates that have already been coded, tested, and audited by the Jincor development team and then customize them to their specific needs.

One of the most important things that the platform focuses on is the legal compliance with each contract. The Jincor team ensures that each smart contract will be legally binding and comply with the proper regulations of each jurisdiction.

The potential industry disruptions:

Legal: “Smart contracts” stored on the blockchain track contract parties, terms, transfer of ownership, and delivery of goods or services without the need for legal intervention.

Supply Chain: By utilizing a distributed ledger, companies within a supply chain gain transparency into shipment tracking, deliveries, and progress among other suppliers where no inherent trust exists.

Government: Blockchain offers promise as a technology to store personal identity information, criminal backgrounds, and “e-citizenship,” authorized by biometrics.

Energy: Decentralized energy transfer and distribution are possible via micro-transactions of data sent to blockchain, validated, and re-dispersed to the grid while securing payment to the submitter.

Food: Using blockchain to store food supply chain data offers enhanced traceability of product origin, batching, processing, expiration, storage temperatures, and shipping.

Retail: Secure P2P marketplaces can track P2P retail transactions, with product information, shipment, and bills of lading input on the blockchain, and payments made via Bitcoin.

Healthcare: Electronic medical records stored in a blockchain, accessed and updated via biometrics, allow for the democratization of patient data and alleviate the burden of transferring records among providers.

Insurance: When autonomous vehicles and other smart devices communicate status updates with insurance providers via the blockchain, premium costs decrease as the need for auditing and authenticating data vanishes.

Travel and Hospitality: Passengers store their authenticated “single travel ID” on the blockchain for use in lieu of travel documents, identification cards, loyalty program IDs, and payment data.

Education: Educational institutions could utilize the blockchain to store credentialing data around assessments, degrees, and transcripts.

As part of our research coverage on disruptive technologies at Crowd Companies, blockchain aligns with our prior research on the Collaborative Economy, where technologies strengthen P2P relationships to bypass central institutions. Additionally, blockchain technologies will be harnessed by autonomous technologies, enabling machine-to-machine transactions.