Olga Mack is an experienced lawyer who developed a passion about the intersection of law and blockchain. In her talk she explains how smart contracts operates and why they matter. Lawyer, Adjunct Professor UC Berkeley, School of Law. Strategist at Quantstamp at the intersection of Blockchain and Smart Contracts. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.
TRANSCRIPTION
when I was six
growing up in Siberia I told my mother
that I would like to become an artist
she said wonderful to be clear it wasn’t
like how was your day at the carnival
wonderful but more like I spilled my
coffee and white shirt wonderful you see
in my kindergarten the artworks were
arranged from best to last and I was
always second to the bottom and so
before my mother agreed to spend on my
art education she wanted to know why do
I want to be an artist and so without
missing a beat and looking her straight
in the eye I said I want to make the
world a more beautiful place of course
and that is how I spent seven years
getting to know the universal language
of visual arts and as I was getting
better seven years later we emigrated to
the United States I was 13 I did not
speak English and you remember 13 right
very few things are more traumatic that
a combination of puberty and high school
but at least everybody else had a chance
to discuss how traumatic it was I could
not say a word and instead I was lost in
my studies and discovered another
universal language of math and science
and so I had a second career
conversation with my mother where I told
her that I would like to become an
engineer my mother asked me why
and without missing a beat I looked her
straight in the eye and I said to make a
world a more functional place of course
now you have to understand – my parents
were both engineers this was music to
their ears my dad walked a little taller
and he was already a very tall guy and
my mom smiled she finally did something
right but that didn’t last I learned
English
I developed opinions I developed a sense
of justice and I wanted to make sure
that I make an impact I really earned to
make a difference so I had a third
conversation with my mother where I told
her that I would like to become a lawyer
she didn’t even ask why and the
conversation very quickly escalated from
mom to dad so my dad sat me down and he
said Olga I got used to the idea of you
making the world I’m a beautiful place
and then you had this idea of making the
world I’m a functional place and I
thought that was a terrific idea it
sounds like you gave up on both but that
was different I actually wanted to ask
Oh took the bar exam became a check or
so take that dad I’m kidding
my dad has always been supportive this
is not the story I’m gonna tell him but
he never stopped wondering how two
engineers managed to raise one lawyer
now fast forward to today
and I think I finally have discovered
that thing that will make a world I’m a
beautiful and functional place smart
contracts
and before I go tell you what they are
and give you examples of their
applications let me talk a little bit
about blockchain the underlying
technology now you may be wondering what
on earth is blockchain and if you think
about it for a minute
you may even imagine a movie starring
somebody like the Dwayne the rock
Johnson
you know blockchain the unfortunate name
aside it is really an immutable
distributed ledger immutable means that
if you put something on blockchain it’s
really hard to change it is pretty much
there forever distributed means that no
one computer can’t decide it’s a network
of computers around the world sharing
that decision and ledger is just a table
like an Excel table that contains a lot
of information now what makes this
technology work is cryptology which is a
magic ingredient when you mix it a lot
that’s what makes work sharing work now
this technology is no joke it’s a lot of
math but at the core I think of
blockchain as a history of all
transactions now using blockchain and
technology platform like a serial you
can build decentralized applications or
adapts and at the core of the apps are
smart contracts so that brings me to
smart contracts let’s talk about smart
contracts I hate to disappoint you those
smart contracts also have a misguiding
name they’re not really smart as in this
little girl is very smart and they’re
not really contracts as in pages of
pages of legalese where you sign at the
our mandate not that kind of contract
there are really pieces of code that
codify business logic and at the core
they facilitate three functions one they
store rules two they verify rules and
three they self executables I tend to
think of them as very secure vending
machines so for example every vending
machine stores a rule that if you insert
a dollar you may get a snack of choice
and then when you go and insert in fact
a dollar it verifies the correct amount
and after verification voila a happy
moment you get a snack of choice that is
kind of how smart contracts works and
because they are blockchain application
there is no intermediary there is no
broker there is no escrow agent there is
no government corporation not even a
lawyer it executes automatically so to
summarize smart contracts are pieces of
code they’re very secure and they self
execute that’s very exciting and the
world of business is in the process of
embracing smart contracts
we’ll see numerous applications in IOT
financial sector supply chain and
numerous others but the reason I get up
in the morning and get really excited
about smart contracts is because of
their potential to solve problems that
have never been solved before now I’m
gonna go through four applications and I
will treat them separate but in reality
anyone’s smart contracts can combine
more than one application I want to make
sure that you really get a breadth and
depth of what’s possible so application
one smart contracts are very
good at storing data so for example
there is an American startup that is
rethinking census and they’re building a
decentralized protocol using smart
contracts census is a very powerful tool
in the United States and many other
nations census is how we determine how
to distribute billions of federal
dollars every year’s census is how we
determine where we build bridges schools
roads hospitals so census is very
important this startup collects
questions from the people then it
collects answers from the people and
then it securely stores at all on
blockchain and anonymously so this way
our legislators can really get a
representative representation of who we
are as people and what it is that we
want smart contracts are very good at
facilitating trust so for example
another startup now a little bit more
international it includes people from
Australia Canada and Germany is
connecting urban farmers landowners and
consumers it allows putting small lease
agreements on blockchain using smaller
contracts and facilitate renting of
small plots of land and small plots of
land add up to a big field so for
example if I owned a house in San
Francisco and I don’t have time or
interest to garden I can rent my
backyard or if I have a flat roof even a
roof for somebody to cultivate this now
the benefits of urban farming are huge
it allows to decrease our carbon
footprint it allows us to build tighter
community
it’s an opportunity to explain to our
children where food comes from and most
importantly urban farming is beautiful
and delicious now number three smart
contracts can function as software
libraries and I know that sounds a
little dry talking about software
libraries is a little bit like me
inviting you to watch the paint dry or
watch the grass grow it’s a little
boring I get it but it actually has
life-saving applications so for example
in the United States over a hundred
thousand people are waiting for kidney
transplant transplant every year and on
average it takes three to five years and
in some states it takes up to ten and
the real bomber is is that the longer
you wait the less likely the transplant
is successful there is of course a
solution to this many hospitals allow
somebody in the patient’s network to
donate a kidney like a friend a family
member a co-worker or just a giant
stranger but the challenge is is that
the donor is not always a match there is
a solution to that as well
hospitals allow a swap so for example if
a donor a is not a match with a patient
a and a donor B is not a match with a
patient B they can swap the challenge is
this solution is highly geographically
limited so two women from Germany
Germany and France are creating a
protocol that allows to match paired
donations real-time and across
geographies so not only does it solve
the problem of time it also allows for
successful transplant operations
application for smart contracts are
really good at authenticating
so for example since 2015 a start-up in
Finland has been working with the
government to give a prepaid card to
every refugee and displaced person who
enters that country that card stores
identity on blockchain a refugee can now
go into the bank and open a bank account
no passport no ID is required they can
then quickly get government benefits so
they can survive but it gets even more
interesting than this using smart
contracts they can borrow from their
network so not only can they survive
they actually can build credit and have
a chance to thrive what if we extend
this solution to 70 million refugees who
on average stay in their host country
for over ten years you know when we
think of a better world we don’t usually
think about blockchain we don’t think
about smart contract and it’s partially
because these technologies are not well
understood
of course funny names very complicated
technology and lots of maths are not
helpful either
but I am convinced that once we realize
that we can use smart contracts to solve
long-standing problems we will attract
talent from all over the world and we’ll
be able to leverage the creativity and
knowledge let me give you an example
there is a social network as a
decentralized social network in New York
for artists no words just pictures and
the amazing part is to watch those
artists play with it explore make
mistakes collaborate and ultimately make
beautiful art yes there is this part
where they use the smart contracts
to make sure that they paid fairly and
that is absolutely important but you
know what is more interesting a hundred
fifty thousand artists 50 countries
creativity unleashed new artworks that
never been seen before collaboration
creativity completely Unleashed imagine
if we could channel that creativity that
intelligence to other disciplines to
solving world problems I am convinced
that the progress we’ve made from the
beginnings of times up until information
age would pale in comparison with what
we can do with this technology you see
when I was six and wanted to make a
world a more beautiful place I never
heard of smart contracts and when I was
sixteen and wanted to make a world a
more functional place I’ve never heard
of smart contract either and even when I
went to law school and I wanted to make
a world a more just place never heard of
smart contracts but today I am convinced
that smart contracts have joint Arts and
Sciences to make a difference and sold
the world’s biggest problems
imagine a world where a trust is given
imagine a world where we can unleash
creativity of this planet imagine a
world where a census represents who we
are where urban farms are thriving where
kidney donations are seamless and
refugees get part to be to be part of
our world
wouldn’t that be a beautiful and
functional world thank you.