Introducing Smart Legal Agreements and Dangers of the SAFT with Aaron Wright

Aaron Wright is a Professor of Law at the Cardozo School of Law in New York City.

He is also the co-inventor of OpenLaw – a blockchain-based protocol for the creation and execution of smart legal agreements.

In this episode, Aaron and I discuss:

– What OpenLaw is

– What the SAFT is (including some of its lesser known deficiencies) -and-

– The future of ICOs from a legal perspective

SHOW NOTES

[00:59] – Who is Aaron Wright and what is OpenLaw? Introduction and overview

[14:15] – What is a smart contract? What is a legal agreement? What problem is OpenLaw trying to solve?

[25:55] – OpenLaw launch timeline

[28:07] – The OpenLaw markup language

[35:17] – What is a SAFT? Why does Aaron think it’s a bad idea?

[42:10] – The Howey Test and the SAFT

[53:03] – The Forman Case: An alternative to the Howey Test

[53:55] – Why “facts and circumstances” and “economic realities” are key in determining whether or not a token is a security

[56:20] – What’s next for ICOs from a legal perspective?

[1:01:31] – Can the law keep up with rapid pace of technological innovation?

[1:05:23] – Aaron’s take on the Blockchain killer app

[1:07:37] – His prediction of where Bitcoin and Ethereum will be in 10 years

[1:10:52] – Aaron Wright’s advice to companies and entrepreneurs interested in innovating with Blockchain

[1:11:20] – Conclusion

RESOURCES DISCUSSED

– OpenLaw video tutorials

– SAFT

– Aaron’s paper

– Thomson Reuters

– Contracts Ex-Machina

– Jason Teutsch

– DocuSign

– HelloSign

– BitTorrent

– GitHub

– ConsenSys

– Accredited Investor

– Marco Santori

– The Brooklyn Project by ConsenSys

– Howey Test

– Forman case (utility)

– Regulation D

– Regulation A+

– Filecoin

– Airswap

CONTACT INFORMATION

OpenLaw website

OpenLaw Twitter