The Chamber of Digital Commerce, a leading trade association that aims to promote the understanding, acceptance and use of digital assets and blockchain-based technologies, has released a smart contracts white paper at its Smart Contracts Symposium.

Symposium attendees were the first to receive access to the white paper. The event brought together more than 250 of the world’s leading financial institutions, legal experts and blockchain technologists to discuss the widespread adoption of this new technology.

Titled “Smart Contracts: 12 Use Cases for Business & Beyond”, the white paper was developed by the Smart Contracts Alliance, a working group of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, in collaboration with ‘Big Four’ consultancy firm Deloitte.

Nick Szabo coined the term ‘smart contracts’ in 1996. Smart contracts are a digital, self-executing means of transferring assets or conducting actions based on rules developed utilizing blockchain technology.

In the white paper's foreword, Szabo who provided the keynote at the Symposium, shared, "blockchain technology appears very much to be the jet fuel necessary for smart contracts to become commonplace in business transactions and beyond. It is a delight to be part of a community committed to fostering the tenants of open source cooperation, privacy and security, education in technology, and working for a common social good.” 

The white paper presents twelve smart contract use cases across a range of industries and topics, including: digital identity, records, securities, trade finance, derivatives, financial data recording, mortgages, land title recording, supply chain, auto insurance, clinical trials, and cancer research. It also sets out the legal and regulatory considerations in relation to the implementation of smart contracts.

"Smart contracts will bring clarity, efficiency and predictability to the way we conduct business,” said Jason Brett, Director of Operations at the Chamber of Digital Commerce, at the Smart Contracts Symposium. “On behalf of the Smart Contracts Alliance, I am pleased to present this paper to the business and policy communities, and would like to thank all of our members and contributors for their collaborative and valuable contributions to this white paper.”