In fact, the application has been entered into the ongoing Ethereum Hackathon. Intrigued about this application, Cointelegraph spoke to Susanne Tarkowski Tempelhof, CEO and founder of Bitnation.
Cointelegraph: Could you explain the rationale behind Smart Love?
Susanne Tarkowski: We wanted a simple and fun end user application to focus energy around building the Pangea Jurisdiction. Marriage is an ideal candidate because there’s a real need for it in the LGBT, inter-faith and polyamorous communities around the world, and most components you need to create a functional jurisdiction can be found in a robust marriage contract - like the ability to choose code of law, arbitrator, create an escrow, sign and timestamp the contract, etc.
CT: You got married on the Bitnation platform, was it an experimentation of Smart Love?
ST: I would say everything we’ve done up till now - the ID, Public Notary, Citizen and Embassy Networks, etc - has been an experiment/early proof-of-concept of the Pangea Jurisdiction. A testing ground, if you like. The marriage itself is serious, James and I are very committed to each other - and to Bitnation. We just moved from the UK to Amsterdam together and got a beautiful puppy.
CT: Why is it that Smart Love wants to establish moderate barriers to entry and tough barriers to exit?
ST: You can have a relationship with someone without getting married. The purpose of marriage is really security — the knowledge that the time, energy and emotions you invest into building something together is a worthwhile undertaking — particularly if you intend to do ‘high-risk’ things, such as purchase real estate or have children together. Therefore it’s good to have a moderate barrier to entry — so people can’t just do it Vegas style night out - but it actually has to go through a process.
The marriage must be possible to end, of course, but it should come with some considerable hassle, so people don’t simply walk out and give up on it because of a minor obstacle. You could compare it with the process of getting a tattoo - though obviously tattoos don’t have much emotional, logistical or financial effects on your life.
CT: Any particular reason Bitnation chose to have Smart Love on the Ethereum Blockchain?
ST: Because Ethereum is optimised for Smart Contracts, which is a key requirement for the Pangea Jurisdiction. However, once Rootstock is more evolved, we hope to be compatible with Rootstock and the Bitcoin Blockchain as well.
CT: How do you see Smart Love’s chances in the Ethereum Hackathon?
ST: I’m not very concerned about winning — that’s not why we are participating in
Below is an outline of some of the main components in the longer Smart Love writeup, which Bitnation would like to use to start a community wide discussion about:
Wikipedia defines a jurisdiction as the practical authority granted to a legal body to administer justice within a defined area of responsibility. Pangea addresses four core elements of the administration of justice:
Codes of Law (CoL)
Refer to an existing code of law (e.g. Common Law, Sharia Law or Civil Code), or upload your own code of law
Mediation and Arbitration (MaM):
- Choose Witness(es)
- Choose Arbitrator(s)
- Choose a Jury - later date application
Incentivisation, Deterrent and Enforcement (IDaE):
- Multisig Escrow to hold mutual assets (money, tokenized land titles, car assets, etc)
- Pseudo-Anonymous Reputation System as incentive for contract compliance
Defined Area of Responsibility (DAoR):
- The Pangea Jurisdiction, built on SSBC/ Patchbay/ Ethereum