Legal Engineering

Casey Kuhlman, CEO@eris_ltd

@compleatang

Overview

● The big picture● The tools● The vision● Example

In the information age, as our businesses grow increasingly interconnected, and as the amount of data we produce explodes,

organizations and individuals need to have methods to manage their data driven relationships.

Blockchains & smart contracts provide a foundation for information age organizations to develop business process applications that

manage their data-driven relationships on an ecosystem level.

To be useful, ecosystem applications require explicit terms and conditions for participants’ relationships.

Mapping these relationships today is the domain of lawyers.

Mapping them tomorrow will be the domain of legal engineers.

Legal engineers ask: what happens when we can package, distribute, and reliably execute our relational business processes

using software rather than prose?

Legal engineers produce scalable products that regulate our data-driven relationships according to an agreed set of rules.

They will fundamentally alter how law is practiced globally.

Blockchains & Smart Contracts in 30 Seconds

Blockchains => an immutable record of attributable actions visible to every node on the network; or, as we say, every participant in the ecosystem.

Smart contracts => programs which provide deterministic computation and verified outcomes by every participant in the ecosystem.

What Can Blockchains Do?

● Distributed, immutable ledger○ Data certainty○ Real-time reconciliation○ Horizontally scalable infrastructure for record-keeping

● Cryptographically verified activity○ Continuous, self-managing audits for all transactions

● Ability to execute cryptographically secure logic○ Smart Contracts

What Can Blockchains Not Do (Currently)?

● Get queried (they’re ledgers, not databases)○ Lots of workarounds though.○ Many startups working to solve this.

● Provide Me-to-You Privacy○ Blockchains are transparency machines.○ Use a strengthened p2p messaging layer instead.

Why Blockchain & Smart Contracts?

● Blockchain architecture provides cryptographic data certainty as to who took what action and when○ Example: Digital Currency => Title Transfer

● Smart contracts provide cryptographically secure computation and logic verified by all ecosystem participants○ Example: Commercial Paper => Are payments on time? Is the instrument in default?

● Open source systems have more potential for global network interoperability○ Lower Cost○ Global Availability

What Can I Do With These Tools?

What can you do with a database and a programming language that have been optimized to run on an ecosystem level, rather than ran by a single entity in the ecosystem?

Smart Contract Potential

● Value Storage● Value Transfer● Complex Property Tracking● Relationship Creation and Management● Workflow Management● Financial Instrument Lifecycle● Dynamic Systems (DAOs)

The Vision: An Interoperable Ecosystem

● Multitude of interoperable, specialized blockchains● Smart contracts linking data and relationships to processes and

property● Scalable, extensible relational smart contract models allow legal

systems to evolve more rapidly as (some) compliance and rules can be implemented as simply as updating software.

How to Build Commercially Viable Ecosystem ApplicationsVery Carefully.

We must analyze current systems to understand:

● First Causes - How and why do the current models work?● Relationships - What are the actors, functions and goals? ● Systems - How did current systems develop, and how can we take the

next step?● Bottom--->Top ● Small--->Large

== Legal Engineering

Example Time!

Source: http://www.gao.gov/assets/680/677436.pdf

National Social Safety Systems

● Identity● Contribution● Initiating payouts upon given conditions● Minimal administrative overhead● All while maintaining a rock-solid audit trail

Why the HeyDay for Legal Engineering is Now

● Data-management Inflection Points○ Data Volume Problems (has BigData improved our lives?)○ Data Security Problems (what passwords have you had stolen this year?)○ Open Data Movement ( <3 )

● Multitude of Systems Experiencing Similar Systemic Pain Points○ Banks○ Supply Chain○ Science & Education○ Governments

● Interoperability Across Disciplines and Jurisdictions ○ Global Network Economy ○ Digital Nomads

How Do I Get Started?

I’m biased, but start here:

https://docs.erisindustries.com

Are You a Biller? Or…

Are You a Builder?