In usual business operations, we rely on various safeguards to protect our property and livelihoods. We rely on credit scores to identify risky behavior, and while they're not perfect, the general idea behind them is useful. We also rely on arbiters to work out disagreements between the letter and spirit of contracts, or when a contract is under potential violation.
I honestly don't know why blockchains don't already implement this kind of system natively. While it adds some overhead, it's very useful. Perhaps it's because of the idea that anything goes in blockchain. But that's absurd. Blockchain can give us a way to build trust, even when we don't know the actual identity of an individual. It allows us to create protections for our own assets, in a way that we never could before. Perhaps it's because of the idea of the permanence of blockchain. But while it's true that the actual data on the blockchain remains, forever, as part of the public ledger, that doesn't mean that we cannot amend contracts or engage in arbitration when things go wrong. And things very often go wrong. No matter how well written a contract is, there are often elements that are misunderstood, confusions which arise, and external elements that cannot be controlled.
Future Lawyers
I still believe that the lawyers of the future will have to main functions. The first and primary function will be to to draft smart contracts. People who develop smart contracts for managing general operations will need to understand how agreements between people function and malfunction, while also needing to understand the coding necessary to ensure that the smart contract functions as intended. The second function will be to arbitrate transactions when things do go wrong, because no matter how many precautions are taken, something will eventually go wrong. These arbiters will be highly trusted individuals which have staked a lot within the system, and who have the ability to unlock funds in order to pay debts and fix damages.
Design Thoughts
As much as I'd like to implement a blockchain that relies on this technology at the core level, it's far easier to implement the system as an overlay on top of Ethereum or Tron. As part of the larger World Builder framework, I'm almost ready to release a TRC-20 token, that acts as a model for this idea. It has two main components. The first component is the ability to permanently freeze part of the supply of tokens, much like one would see in a proof of burn system. Interest is calculated based on how many tokens an individual has frozen. However, part of the calculation also involves a trust score. This trust score ranges from 0 - 65535 and starts at 32768. This score can change when another user evaluates the user. An evaluation ranges from -7 to +7, and the calculation is a simple weighted average, where the current score is multiplied by the number of total evaluations the user has received. A user has to have a trust score greater than 16383 to evaluate someone, and must have at least 1,000 tokens frozen. Additionally, if the trust score is less than 32768, the evaluation is reduced by half. To prevent abuse, a user can only evaluate a given user once per day and they are forced to freeze more tokens each time they evaluate someone.
There will also be an arbitration system. This system allows for those who very high trust scores and a lot of frozen tokens to act on behalf of the users to settle disputes. They will have the ability to unlock frozen tokens and use them to settle debts. However, they will not have the ability to force a user to transfer unlocked tokens. Obviously, the larger the locked amount, the more you can trust that you will obtain your funds in case something goes wrong. Right now, the arbitration contract is incomplete. It's going to be very complicated and I'll probably need a few other devs to finish it.
Development
This project will be spearheaded as part of the larger World Builder operation, which is transitioning to becoming more of a think tank and incubator platform than a specific project. I'm not releasing the token on the test net, because I want people to use it, and see how it works in the real world. I want to see if the credit rating system that I implemented is sufficient, and whether the arbitration system, when it is added onto the platform, is reasonable. Most likely, this token will be an extended TRC-20 token, however it may very well become a blueprint for a trusted token standard.
