The Accord Project defines an open specification and reference implementation for smart legal contracts. The Project, hosted by the Linux Foundation, is technology agnostic; enabling smart legal contracts to be used with any technology infrastructure. Doing so is important for enterprise adoption of smart contracts in order to enable computable documents to be portable and use across, and irrespective of, particular technical implementations.
The Accord Project is pleased today to announce the release of support for the Java Virtual Machine. To demonstrate the functionality of the stack on the JVM, Accord Project members, Clause and R3 have released an exemplary legal contract template for the Corda blockchain platform.
The Accord Project stack may be used to develop on top of Corda to add a legal contract layer for users of its enterprise blockchain network. Using the Cicero templating system, legal text is combined with smart contract code that runs on the Corda platform. A sample provided with the template illustrates how a promissory note agreement can be issued between parties on a Corda network; the agreement includes the full legal text, data extracted from the text, and code to settle legally enforceable obligations on Corda.
In smart contract projects, natural language should remain a foundational component of commercial transactions, even when an underlying or related process has been automated. If the legal text underlying enforceable contract obligations is not connected to blockchain operations, widespread enterprise adoption is unlikely to take place. In such a case, blockchain code be would operate outside of commercially acceptable practices and may undermine risk and compliance frameworks. This new Corda asset addresses these problems by demonstrating how changes to the text of an agreement can modify the underlying system implementation in a commercially expedient and compliant manner.
The Accord Project template is accessible here and the template execution on Corda is available at this link.
Clause’s Chief Scientist, Jerome Simeon said:
“We are very excited to publish the first Open Source release of this sample for Corda. Combining templatized text with smart contract code on Corda allows for greater traceability and makes the legal intent of a business agreement explicit.”
Jason Rozovsky, Assistant General Counsel at R3 said:
“As blockchain platforms move towards the execution of smart legal contracts, templates created by systems such as Cicero will be important for the development of smooth and efficient contracting processes. Corda was built from the ground up to facilitate the execution of smart contracts, and we are hopeful that the combination of this work with the Accord Project and Clause will prove to be valuable to partners building CorDapps.”
For more information on the template, including code, please visit:
https://github.com/accordproject/corda-accord-template. A demonstration from the Accord Project Forum 2019 presented by Jason Rozovsky of R3 and Jerome Simeon of Clause is available at: https://vimeo.com/343192017.
Accord Project:
Peter Hunn
Accord Project
press@accordproject.org
R3:
Nick Murray-Leslie
Chatsworth Communications
+44 (0)207 440 9780
contact@chatsworthcommunications.com
Charley Cooper
R3
+1 929 329 1550
charley@r3.com
About Accord Project
The Accord Project is an open source non-profit organization to advance the state-of-the-art of computational and connected smart legal contracts. It’s members comprise the largest law firms, academic institutions specialising in blockchain technology and law, and affiliations with the world’s leading standards bodies. The codebases are hosted by the Linux Foundation. Learn more at www.accordproject.org.
About R3
R3 is an enterprise blockchain software firm working with a global ecosystem of more than 300 participants across multiple industries from both the private and public sectors to develop on Corda, its open-source blockchain platform, and Corda Enterprise, a commercial version of Corda for enterprise usage.
R3’s global team of over 200 professionals in 13 countries is supported by over 2,000 technology, financial, and legal experts drawn from its vibrant ecosystem.
The Corda platform is already being used in industries from financial services to healthcare, shipping, insurance and more. It records, manages and executes institutions’ financial agreements in perfect synchrony with their peers, creating a world of frictionless commerce. Learn more at www.r3.com and www.corda.net.