1. Introduction to Smart Contracts
If you are just getting started with Smart Contracts, I suggest you start with the following.
| Title | Author |
|---|---|
| Three Ways That Smart Contracts Will Change the Way You Do Business (yes I’m biased but I wrote it as an introduction to applications of smart contracts) | Adam Long of LawSnap |
| Smart Contracts — The Path to mainstream adoption | Harry Papacharissiou of Genesis Blockchain Services |
2. Smart Contracts Legal Issues
Well-done papers on analysis of smart contracts under current law and how courts are likely to treat smart contracts. (Biased towards US law at the moment but I would like to fix that with resources on other jurisdictions.)
United States
| Title | Date | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Smart Contracts & Legal Enforceability (my review is here.) | 2018-10-16 | Cardozo Blockchain Project at Cardozo Law School ( |
| More Legal Aspects of Smart Contract Applications (my review here.) | 2018-10 | The Virtual Currency Report from Perkins Coie |
| Smart Contracts: Is the Law Ready? | 2018-09 | The Smart Contracts Alliance at the Chamber of Digital Commerce |
3. Learn to Build Your Own Smart Contracts
The rapidly evolving world of smart contracts are just beginning to enter their “spreadsheet phase” where non-programmers will be able to build their own smart contracts using software.
A few platforms that have recently released toolkts
Accord Project
Accord Project home page
Accord Project Template Library
Clause
Clause home page
OpenLaw
The OpenLaw Project
4. Enterprise Smart Contracts
Digital Asset
R3
- R3 and its opensource platform Corda and Corda Documentation .
IBM and Hyperledger
JPMorgan and Quorum
- Quorum, from JPMorgan.
5. Digitizing and Standardizing Contracts
Common Domain Model for Financial Derivatives
Nice overview of Common Domain Model (CDM) by Alex Koller of R3.
White paper: Smart Derivatives Contracts: From Concept to Construction by ISDA and the law firm King & Wood Mallesons
ISDA webinar on the CDM.
I wish I could link to more specifics on the CDM, but ISDA has chosen to make this document available only to ISDA members.
Digital Asset Modelling Language (DAML) for contracts
Series of medium posts on DAML
6. Advanced Topics in Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT)
While it is (theoretically) possible to have a smart contract without using a blockchain or distributed ledger technology (“DLT”) or to have a DLT (or a blockchain) without smart contracts, the the two technologies are related and mutually reinforcing: the growth of one will support the other. So to understand smart contracts you need to understand DLT as well.
These sources do a great job cutting through the vast and cacophonous hype around blockchain to explain how it works and what it means.
Academic Papers, Journals and Books
Blockchain and DLT Courses
| Title | Date | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies | 2018 Fall | Taught by Dan Boneh and David Mazières of Stanford Computer Science Department |
| The Blockchain Law Class | Taught by Daniel Martin Katz and Nelson M. Rosario at Chicago-Kent College of Law |
7. Advanced Topics in Smart Contracts
A proposed new Taxonomy for Autonomous Smart Contracts, a 2018-08-11 paper by Philippa Ryan.