This week Kate Sills joins us to respond to several recent articles criticizing smart contracts. One of the issues we cover is the “Oracle problem,” which is how a self-enforcing digital contract can know whether terms have been met in the physical world. Also, we discusses how smart contracts cannot be mere transactional documents but also need to facilitate relationships, something that has led traditional contract law to purposefully include ambiguous or unenforceable clauses. Finally, we talk about Alex Tabbarok’s call for a dedicated arbitration system for smart contract disputes. Disclaimer: While squirrel mortality is referenced briefly during the episode, no members of the Sciuridae family were harmed in the making of this show. Kate Sill’s case for smart contracts. Jimmy Song on the Oracle problem. Alex Tabbarok calls for a smart contract arbitration system. (Deep Cut) Karen Levy reminds us that contracts are relational documents. Listen to Kate Sills discuss smart contracts and the blockchain on Free Thoughts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How Smart are 'Smart Contracts'?

Building Tomorrow explores the ways technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship are creating a freer, wealthier, and more peaceful world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Coming soon, a brand new podcast from Libertarianism.org... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Coming Soon: The Liberty Exchange

Your home is full of technological miracles, devices that your ancestors would have regarded as near magic because of the life of relative ease they provide us with. However, something is changing. In the past, we got richer by owning more stuff; but in the future, we will have more by owning less. 
In this final episode of Building Tomorrow, Paul talks with Cory Doctorow, Michael Munger, Ruth Cowan, and Chelsea Follett about the past, present, and future of material possession. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Future of Stuff

If you're the kind of person who carefully sorts out your recyclables from your trash, cleans it, and puts it out in the blue bin for pickup, you probably don't realize that as much as 90% of that material either just ends up in a landfill or, worse, is dumped into the ocean. Indeed, much of the plastic litter in the Pacific Ocean is the result of our well-intentioned but misplaced efforts at recycling since the 1990s.
In this episode, we talk to an environmental economist, landfill scientist, and blockchain engineer about the future of our waste. We can efficiently sort and store our plastics in landfills for future mining operations, incentivizing good behavior via cryptocurrency rewards. We can incinerate our waste in hyper-efficient facilities that power cities and reduce our carbon footprint. Building Tomorrow means building more and better landfills. 
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One Landfill's Trash is the Future's Treasure

People are afraid. Afraid that they are consuming too much, emitting too much, having too many kids, and running the planet into the ground. Eight billion people seems like too many. But a growing number of experts are sounding the alarm that a far worse problem is on the horizon, an underpopulation crisis. People are having fewer kids and countries are aging. For example, by the end of the century Japan will halve its population. Those who remain will be older and poorer. We need more people, not fewer, if we want to find innovative solutions to climate change and resource crunches. 
For music attributions see: https://www.libertarianism.org/podcasts/building-tomorrow/underpopulation-crisis 
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The Underpopulation Crisis

What happens when a raw material that is valueless suddenly becomes valuable? If it's bird guano in the 19th century, you mine it and save the agricultural economy. If its data in the late 20th century, you collect it and create a new digital economy. 
Music attributions can be found here: https://www.libertarianism.org/podcasts/building-tomorrow/guano. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How Smart are 'Smart Contracts'?

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