LTO Network in 300 words

LTO Network’s infrastructure allows different parties, with competing economic and/or political interests, to work within the same processes without the need to trust one another or a third party. To facilitate this, LTO Network has developed Live Contracts. Similar to a Smart Contract, a Live Contract provides a dynamic method for defining logic on the blockchain. However, the purpose of a Live Contract is not just to determine the state of a process, but to actively instruct humans and computers about the steps it contains.

In other words, a Live Contract is a workflow. A workflow is a sequence of related steps or processes that are necessary to complete a particular task. Think of it this way: a workflow has rules, where a certain action triggers another action, and so on.

A workflow is essentially the general template of a business process. For example, consider the workflow of a simple lease agreement approval, in which a document gets (1) drafted, (2) approved and (3) signed. A process is the specific instance of this workflow, so for example the lease agreement between parties A and B, which was drafted by an employee of B, approved by the CEO of B, and signed by both parties.

A workflow always contains certain logic: the rules mentioned before. Take for example the rule that signing can only come after approval, or that a rejection instead of an approval would lead to a re-draft of the agreement.

Workflow + workflow rules = Live Contract

Essentially, LTO Network handles inter-party Business Process Management on the blockchain. Live Contracts can be applied in a broad spectrum of areas, for example in supply chain, insurance, healthcare and KYC procedures. Moreover, the system can be used for legal contracts like lease agreements and NDA contracts. Other use cases can be found here.