On The Legal Position Of Smart Contracts Under The Technology Of Blockchain

The emergence and popularity of Bitcoin has enabled the underlying technology Blockchain that will support its operation to enter the public's field of vision.With the continuous development and improvement of Blockchain technology,coupled with the construction of Blockchain's platforms such as Ethereum,the Blockchain began to shift from digital currency to Smart Contract.This shift has not only broadened the prospects of the Blockchain,but brought a certain impact on the traditional legal system.Based on the underlying technology architecture of the Blockchain,Smart Contract can operate in a decentralized environment,in which process the code of contract can execute the pre-defined instructions automatically and ensures the fulfillment of the contractual purpose when the conditions are met.This feature of Smart Contract that governs the fulfillment process entirely by contract code raises a discussion of "Code as Law" in the technical field.However,this proposition with the meaning that"code would substitute law"is a false proposition for the legal person.The content of the contract is written by the code in Smart Contract,as the operation of the contract is controlled by the code,but it is still a kind of contract in essence,and it also doesn't exceed the scope of the law from the nature of the Smart Contract.In addition to the introduction and conclusion,this article consists of five parts.The first part introduces the technology of Blockchain that is the basis of Smart Contract and their relationship.The concept of Smart Contract was born at the end of the last century,but it didn't be achieved due to the technical conditions.The emergence of Blockchain provides sufficient technical support for Smart Contract,and its decentralization,non-destructive modification,transparency and other features also provide a reliable external environment for the the operation.The second part analyzes the discussion of "Code is Law" caused by Smart Contract.Since the process of writing and running Smart Contract is completely controlled by code,where the law cannot intervene,so the technical person puts forward a argument of "code is law".Although this proposition does have some rationality at the logical level,,that is,the operation of the code and the application process of the law are all logic.However,there is not only logic in the law.From the perspective of legal realism,it can be known that the logical correspondence between code and law does not allow code to replace the law.The proposition of "Code is Caw" can be falsified consequently.The third part clarifies the legal position of Smart Contract.The process of establishing a Smart Contract requires the steps of contract formulation,deployment,etc.,and the core part of the process is similar to the process of legal contract's formation.Although the characteristics of the smart contract's automatic execution in the fulfillment process make it different from the traditional electronic contract,it still does not exceed the definition of the traditional contract from the essential attribute of Smart Contract.The fourth part analyzes the related advantages and problems of Smart Contract.Since Smart Contract is written by the code language,it can avoid the negotiation cost and semantic controversy in the traditional contract to a certain extent.At the same time,the automatic execution characteristics of Smart Contract can also effectively improve the efficiency of implementation,and eliminate the "Deadbeat" from the root.However,there are still some problems in smart contracts.On the one hand,the certainty of the code language cannot be adapted to the ambiguity requirements of the legal language.On the other hand,the automatically executed code of Smart Contract faces a huge risk of code loopholes.The fifth part provides a legal response to these risks and problems brought about by Smart Contract.The main measures include:Building a standard system for smart contracts;Clearly defining the scope of application;Innovative the ways of governance,etc.Finally,the content of this paper is summarized in the conclusion part,and the development prospect of Smart Contract has also been predicted briefly.With the further development of Artificial Intelligence,Smart Contract will be more deeply integrated with it.In the foreseeable future,it will be a more intelligent era.