区块链智能合约对传统合同法的挑战及应对思路

智能合约是区块链六大核心技术之一,是未来数字文明的重要基石。基于区块链的智能合约以陌生人社会点对点的技术作为信任环境,一旦设定的条件满足即可自动执行。当虚拟世界智能合约与现实社会的主体、事物发生交互时,智能合约成为法律意义上的合同。但是作为一串由计算机系统自动执行的代码,智能合约向传统合同法提出了巨大挑战:智能合约不能修改和终止;匿名性、格式条款、计算机语言不易辨识等易造成合约相对方意思与表示不一致,而法律效力评价难以发挥功用;智能合约即使通过技术之力极尽“事前预防”之能也难以完全排除智能合约被攻击、当事人权利受损的可能性,而权利事后救济也难以发挥功用。解决虚拟世界智能合约技术规则与现实社会合同法律制度冲突的基本思路应当是虚拟世界为合同法的实施留出技术平台,合同法也应当插上科技的翅膀融入虚拟世界。

The Challenge of Blockchain Smart Contract to Traditional Contract Law and the Way to Deal with It

Smart contracts are one of the six core technologies of blockchain and an important cornerstone of future digital civilization. A smart contract based on blockchain takes the strangers’ social point-to-point technology as the trust environment, and can be automatically executed once the set conditions are met. When a smart contract in the virtual world interacts with subjects and things in the real society, the smart contract becomes a legal contract. However, as a string of codes, which are automatically executed by a computer system, smart contracts make traditional contract law facing huge challenges: smart contracts cannot be modified and terminated; anonymity, standard form of terms and computer language are not easy to identify, which may lead to inconsistent meaning and expression of the parties, and legal effect evaluation is also difficult to function; even though the smart contract is technically capable of “pre-prevention”, it is difficult to completely exclude the possibility that the smart contract is attacked and the rights of the parties are damaged, but rights ex post remedy cannot play a role. The basic logic to solve the conflict between the technical rules of the smart contract in virtual world and the legal system of the real society contract should be that the virtual world provides a technical platform for the implementation of the law of contract, and the legal system of contract should add the wings of technology into the virtual world.