Contract
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Contracts are based on the principle expressed in the Latin phrase pacta sunt servanda, which means "agreements to be kept" ("Agreement" also links to this article). A contract is said to come into existence when acceptance of an offer (agreement to the terms in it) has been communicated to an offeror by an offeree and there has been consideration bargained-for induced by promises or a promise and performance. The offer and acceptance formula, developed in the 19th century, identifies a moment of formation when the parties are of one mind (unified).
The bottom line purpose of contracts is really about ensuring that there is a stable operating environment on to which we can build systems and organisations. As with trading, governance or any other aspect of the social mechanism, this stable operating environment can be achieved without the need of trusted third-parties. This stability can also be provided in a bottom-up peer-to-peer way by making assurance the foundation of contractual binding between members of a Platform.
Having assurance as the foundation allows individuals to only be required to form contracts with those they know and trust, and it's based on supporting our peers when they're unable to meet their obligations, rather than treating contracts as rules involving punishments for violations. In such a system, obligations solidly met because people don't want to let down those they're closely associated with.
Such agreements allow the creation of assurances which can then act as axioms for functionality on higher levels of abstraction in the system. sets of simple agreements between members of trust groups can also form a foundation for alignment with the common vision.
The Platform specification inherits some default member agreements deriving from the common vision and the values. In a Platform, these contracts are documents that members can agree to by sending a signed secure email containing the contract text and a confirmation of comprehension and agreement to a number of other peers who then sign and return the message with a confirmation of having witnessed the signed agreement.
See also
- Trust
- Trust group
- Assurance
- Article on Worldchanging - regarding the need for new bottom-up legal frameworks
