Gartner, the influential research organisation often looked to by the legal tech community for validation, has come out with strong support for smart contracts. They also recommended businesses now move to test and adopt the tech.

The group said: ‘The impact of blockchain smart contract adoption on analytical decision making is profound. It enhances transparency, speed and granularity of decision making. It also improves the quality of decision making, as its continuous verification makes the data more accurate, reliable and trustworthy.’

The statement continued: ‘Gartner analysts recommend Data & Analytics leaders pilot blockchain smart contracts now. Organisations should start deploying them to automate a simple business process, such as non-sensitive data distribution or a simple contract formation for contract performance or management purposes.

‘Then organisations should engage with their affiliates and partners to pilot blockchain smart contracts to automate multiparty contracts within a well-defined ecosystem, such as banking and finance, real estate, insurance, utilities, and entertainment.’

Gartner analyst Lydia Clougherty Jones added that there would be a significant increase in data quality inside an organisation that implemented such tech, but that it could also lead to some reduction in data availability. This was because: ‘…governance frameworks for blockchain participation, or the terms and conditions within the smart contract, can dictate the availability of the data generated from the smart contract transaction, from none to limited, to unlimited.’

But, despite some drawbacks, overall Gartner concluded: ‘The net impact however, is a positive result for data and analytics ROI.’

All in all, good to see that one of the world’s leading technology research companies – famous for developing their Gartner hype cycle model of emerging products – has openly got behind smart contracts.

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P.S. the Deconstructing Smart Legal Contracts event at Cardozo Law School last night in New York was a great success. There were plenty of insights from the panels and also lots of incisive questions from the audience.

Many thanks to all who took part and attended, and a special thank you to Aaron Wright, co-founder of OpenLaw, for putting it together and organising on the day at Cardozo. Artificial Lawyer looks forward to more smart contract events in the future.

Pic shows (L to R) – Bridget Marsh – Executive Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, The Loan Syndications Trading Association, Jason Rozovsky – Assistant General Counsel & Head of Legal Center of Excellence at R3, Joseph Green – Counsel & Director of Client Experience at Gunderson Dettmer and Aaron Wright – Associate Clinical Professor, Director Cardozo Blockchain Project; co-founder of OpenLaw.