You may have heard of the Internet of Things (IoT for
short), but did you realize that it’s a term that is part of a revolution going
on all around us? The days of managing relationships through a centralized
source are coming to an end, and end-points are beginning to talk to each other
directly—no middle man.
When people talk about driverless cars, this peer-to-peer,
IoT relationship is often what they are referring to in the background. The
vehicle of the future will communicate with other vehicles directly (not
through some centralized authority) to better understand the driving conditions
and safety context of the road.
When discussion turns to bitcoin (or other
crypto-currencies), it’s the same IoT idea again. Such currencies are built
with blockchain programming, and the currency itself is both decentralized and
self-contained—the currency can carry its own accounting history within itself,
and this information is available to all who participate in its network
(sometimes referred to as a node in the blockchain).
But did you know that there is now a complete platform
environment to support the decentralized execution of contracts? It’s called
Ethereum, it has just turned three, and it has the power to change everything
about the way we do business on the Internet.
Contracts done in the usual manner are NOT decentralized,
but proprietary. They can get lost (or corrupted), and they can be complex and
costly to administer. When managed in an Ethereum environment, contracts are
shared and updated to all participants in the moment.
Flexibility is the name of the game here. They are designed
to last only as long as the parties allow, and any funds associated with the
contract can be held in the buffer, waiting for the moment to be transferred
(on the successful completion of the metric) or returned to person who put the
funds up in the first place.
In short, contract relationships are going to become more like
your smart car or your bitcoin wallet—they will be decentralized and
consistently updated among all the parties (or nodes). It’s all going to be
about how we as a community of users share, update, and fulfill transactions on
an event-by-event basis.
And just think… contract lawyers might just be looking for
something else to do…
