The Uncertain Future of Smart Contracts

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingBook chapterResearchpeer-review

In the context of the exponential growth of new technologies, any attempt to think about the future becomes enormously challenging. The conventional modern hope that we might learn from past experience and, by doing so, anticipate or otherwise predict future trends has faded due to the cognitive and normative uncertainties that surround today’s technology. As such, ‘prediction’ becomes much harder in an era of fast-paced, technology-driven economic, social and cultural changes. Things move so quickly, often in unknowable directions, leaving us incapable of even grasping the present, let alone identifying a trajectory that can form the basis for any reliable predictions about where we might be going. In thinking about an indeterminate present and undecidable future, we need to combine imagination (everyone is now in the business of science fiction) with the realisation that our predictions are very likely to be proven wrong....
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSmart Contracts : Technological, Business and Legal Perspectives
Number of pages14
Place of PublicationLondon
PublisherHart Publishing
Publication date2021
Edition1st
Pages181-194
Chapter9
ISBN (Print)9781509937028
ISBN (Electronic)9781509937042, 9781509937035
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

ID: 240243708