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The
Digital Path
Smart Contracts and the Third World |
Paper
Talk: The Pencil, The Brick, and the Law
Abstract
Inadequate and ill-adapted property institutions in the third world prevent
the extralegal assets of the poor from serving as capital. In particular,
the absence of credible systems of title transfer makes real estate holdings
ineffective as collateral for loans. How can this barrier to wealth creation
be surmounted? Country-by-country institutional reform is possible, but
inevitably slow. New options based on computer networks and trusted computational
agents may provide a shorter path. By leveraging trust in first-world
institutions while enabling the evolution of contractual arrangements
that fit local needs and traditions, this approach could bring advanced
property systems to regions now paralyzed by their absence.
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