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European Semantic Web Conference

ESWC 2017: The Semantic Web: ESWC 2017 Satellite Events pp 317–326Cite as

TRiC: Terms, RIghts and Conditions Semantic Descriptors for Smart Contracts

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 10577))

Abstract

Smart Contracts have emerged as a novel way to automate the execution of contracts in a decentralised and secure environment, minimising the risk of breach or non-compliance. However, recent research points out that the same measures that secure Smart Contracts against disruption with the purpose of breach makes altering the terms, rights and conditions of contracts difficult. The same research proposes a set of standards inspired in paper-contract law that Smart Contract platforms should implement to enable Smart Contract Undo and Alteration. This paper is about preliminary work on describing terms, rights, and conditions of Smart Contracts as RDF documents linked to them, levering Semantic Web tools enabling: (i) Definition and checking of complex rights and conditions (ii) Separation of the terms of the contract from its execution logic. (iii) Querying and Updating via SPARQL (iv) Alteration of terms that were not initially considered as modifiable.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Functional and variable terms are referred in [7] as Variable-Captured and Function-Captured terms but not defined.

  2. 2.

    Loosely based on the example in https://www.ethereum.org/crowdsale.

  3. 3.

    For the sake of brevity, we omit the definition of the FundTransfer function.

  4. 4.

    Though used in the live version of Ethereum’s white paper https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/White-Paper#ethereum.

  5. 5.

    https://solidity.readthedocs.io/en/develop/contracts.html#function-modifiers.

  6. 6.

    Except if the alteration is by court.

References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Southampton, Southampton, UK

    Luis-Daniel Ibáñez & Elena Simperl

Authors
  1. Luis-Daniel Ibáñez
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  2. Elena Simperl
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Luis-Daniel Ibáñez .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden

    Eva Blomqvist

  2. Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

    Katja Hose

  3. University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany

    Heiko Paulheim

  4. Poznan University of Technology, Poznan, Poland

    Agnieszka Ławrynowicz

  5. University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom

    Fabio Ciravegna

  6. Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden

    Olaf Hartig

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Cite this paper

Ibáñez, LD., Simperl, E. (2017). TRiC: Terms, RIghts and Conditions Semantic Descriptors for Smart Contracts. In: Blomqvist, E., Hose, K., Paulheim, H., Ławrynowicz, A., Ciravegna, F., Hartig, O. (eds) The Semantic Web: ESWC 2017 Satellite Events. ESWC 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10577. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70407-4_40

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70407-4_40

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-70406-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-70407-4

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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