Contracts Across Coins

Smart Contracts for Bitcoin, Ripple and the altcoins

Stefan ThomasCTO, Ripple Labs

In this talk...

Why Bitcoin needs smart contracts

Codius: smart contracts across coins

The end game: a more efficient legal system

Cryptocurrencies have only solved half

of the payments puzzle

Push payments are like checks

We use pull payments every day

+Additional Rules

Smart contracts enable pull payments

1.Translate rules to code

2.Securely identify code

3.Execute with non-colluding parties

Where in the software stack should

smart contracts be executed?

Standard software architecture

User Interface

Business Logic

Database

e.g. HTML5/JS, Swing, mobile apps

e.g. J2EE, Node.js, PHP

e.g. MySQL, PostgreSQL

Distributed systems today

Client

Ledger

e.g. Multibit, Ripple Trade

e.g. Bitcoin, Ripple

???

Smart oracles: standard architecture

Client

Smart Oracle

Ledger

e.g. Multibit, Ripple Trade

e.g. Codius

e.g. Bitcoin, Ripple

Codius: Flexible, powerful, inclusive

Any programming language

Any cryptocurrency network

Any web service

“Simple works, complex fails.” – Timothy Ferriss

Now we can execute traditional contracts as

smart contracts

Contract agreement with

conditional penalties

=

We can easily encode contracts

try { agreement} catch { penalties}

Contract enforcement

How do we check the conditions?

How do we enforce the penalties?

Encode any agreement

pull payments escrowinsurance

auctions

crowdfunding

smart property securities

derivatives

equities

voting

rental agreements

spending limits

End game: a more efficient legal system

...from years of a lawsuit to a single click…

...from thousands or millions spent to dollars or pennies…

...smart contracts develop and improve over time...

Visit codius.org for the white paper!