TL;DR

Why don't we give people options! We could have an umbrella name such as Agreement and then under this we can have a less tight version and then we can have a contract version and let people decide amongst themselves!

@bobhaugen "In ValueFlows, we are using the word Agreement between agents. An Agreement is a bundle of Commitments, where you could substitute the word Promise for Commitment and it would mean the same.

This is useful in economic networks for planning what will happen in the near future. Like, what you have promised to do for others and what they have promised to do for you, and if any of those are reciprocal promises."

I really like this :) To me it feels like an umbrella notion under which "Contracts" could be a particular subset.

@Alanna "I think the difference in connotation between promise and contract might be about what happens if it's broken. A promise is between people personally, staked on social reputation and the strength/value of the relationship. A contract implies impersonal adjudication through legal means, based on laws/policies or a third party authority's decision."

Yeah, agreed. Over the weekend as I was hiking through juggle to the highest point in #fiji with @Kieran much of this stuff was swirling around in the back of my brain.

I was trying to imagine what issuing contracts amongst friends would look like in this particular case. I imagined it would be something like the following:

I send an invite out to my chosen crew mates I want to be involved with backup of my ssb key:

Along with this invite is a simple contract. It stipulates what the expectations/agreements are in as clear as possible legalese (perhaps with a common english translation so that it is super clear). It also lays out what penalties and recourse will happen if they fail to fulfill the contract. Presumably there would also be a timeframe within which they would need to satisfy their obligations. I guess it would also stipulate what would happen in the case of a failure to meet their obligation - it might define arbritrators, or it might define which courts/legal system is applicable in our case (if I am asking a friend in USA to back up for me and I am Fiji - we would need to decide which of those legal systems we fall back to. Or perhaps I would choose Australia or UK as I am a resident in those countries more permanently than Australia).

From my experience of working with friends in a more contractual and formal sense either through work or accomodation I have noticed there is a trend that those with legal connections or money may get their own legal advice about the contract. In the absence of this access (and even with it) it would be quite likely this would require face to face or voice to voice communication.

Ok - so, now that we have that loose template we can see that one of the underlying tools at our disposal is the "Contract". We'd need to get legal advice about how to manage this and design it. I guess we would need to figure out how flexibile it can be with regards to people being in different legal jurisdictions. Would it be possible to have a contract which is general enough for our desired use cases but clear enough that participant understand and robust enough that it can function effectively as a contract (i.e. if something goes wrong there is a clear path towards.... not sure).

This would all need time, resources, expertise and $$$.

I've never seen an example of this granularity of contracturalism between friends so I am not sure if it would work or not.