"Going beyond executing code, a startup called Agrello provides a platform for legally-binding smart contracts By producing and managing both a blockchain-encoded smart contract and also a legally-binding digitally-signed document, the solution ensures that whatever contractual provisions are entered into in its blockchain, these are also executed in real life through legally-enforceable agreements."

"Agrello is raising 10,000 BTC (around US$26.4 million in current prices) for its initial coin offering or ICO, wherein users can acquire “shares” of the company at lower than market value. Currently, the company has raised 5,12 BTC (around US$ 15.4 million) and is on its way to target."

“There is also life-cycle management,” Mr. Norta adds. “When you bring people or agents together, they collaborate. There is some notion of mutual trust involved in this collaboration. As collaboration unfolds, if some violation happens, this life-cycle management must have systems in place to manage the relationships.

The questions that come up, according to Mr. Norta, are: “What happens to malevolent agents? How is such an agent treated? Is it eliminated and replaced?”

The implications are far-reaching, from e-healthcare to e-governance. “We have many complex, highly distributed systems and spend a great deal of energy as a society on information and value transfer,” says Mr. Norta. “It’s costly, time-consuming and we can automate that now.”

This is what Agrello plans to do by adding AI and agent technology on top of smart contacts. “The smart contracts themselves are not all that in-and-of themselves aware,” elucidates Mr. Norta. “Until you bring agents into the pictures to enhance the performance of value transfer logistics.”

Agrello is aiming for that with four use-cases: employment, long term residential real estate rent, commercial real estate and loan agreements.

In the case of a legal dispute, both sides can request a digitally signed hardcopy of the agreement from the contract agent, including a timestamped list of all actions performed by the parties, along with met and breached obligations. The plaintiff’s agent can then automatically fill and submit the required forms, initiating a lawsuit. At court, the contract hardcopy can then eventually be presented to an actual judge.

By automating most functions that are normally performed by lawyers, the need for expensive legal personnel is, in this example, reduced to an absolute minimum. Representation in court would in many cases still require a human professional, but their job would be considerably easier with the objectively verifiable event log provided by the contract agent. The number of cases eventually ending up in court, however, would be expected to drop significantly due to the clarity and consensus provided by the Agrello system.

Alexander Norta PhD — Chief Scientist of Agrello
Hando Rand — Project Lead of Agrello