On October 5, the first 'blockchain marriage' was held at Disney World's Bitcoin Conference in Orlando, Florida. The event was submitted to the online public registry, the blockchain, where the two lovers recorded their wedding agreement without involvement of neither governmental, nor religious representations.
Following their civil ceremony, David Mondrus and Joyce Bayo decided to register their union in the blockchain, where the following message is now recorded: "For better or worse, ’til death do us part, because the blockchain is forever."
Broadcasted live via social media network Liberty.me, Founder Jeffrey Tucker presided over the ceremony. Matt Gilliland, program coordinator at Liberty.me and wedding attendee, told the PanAm Post the union was a "marriage of ideals," adding:
"[These are] two people who love each other very much — the groom glowed when he and I talked about his wife — announcing to the world that they need no permission to record their commitment to one another. Jeffrey Tucker gave a wonderful speech, and definitely got a few people’s tear ducts flowing. The record in the blockchain is merely vows — no contract — but it’s an important symbol of their pledge both to one another and to the fight for freedom."
Gilliland believes this is an important first step, as he is convinced that "in future years, we'll have real, enforceable contracts between loving partners encoded in the blockchain."
To submit their wedding vows to the blockchain, the couple "burnt" 0.1 BTC through a CoinOutlet Bitcoin ATM, before showing the QR code of their "transaction."
Mondrus is CEO of online jewelry store RedboxJewels.com, and advisor to Bitnation, a decentralization services enterprise that allows contracts to be recorded on the blockchain.
Many experts have already discussed the blockchain’s distributed ledger technology on its potential use in "smart contracts." By publicly recording and time-stamping information, the technology could considerably reinvent the way we administrate and execute contracts.
According to Tucker, the technical advantages lying under the blockchain could resolve many marital issues. He also believes private affairs between individuals should be settled through private laws and voluntary agreements, and that disagreements could be arranged between private arbitrators.
In a blog post, Tucker noted that nowadays, couples wishing to get married, had to overcome many obstacles:
"What’s the advantage of this approach over the conventions? Well, if you know the way marriage licenses work, the jurisdictions don’t communicate with each other. They are bogged down in terrible bureaucracy. The couple has to depend on access, verification, and confirmation from the public sector, and, meanwhile, disputes result in massive human suffering for everyone involved, and only the lawyers win."
Furthermore, blockchain unions could be the proper alternative for 'unconventional couples’, whose relationships wouldn't fit to a current governmental system, including gay and polyamorous couples, as argued in a BitNation press release.
Expert commentary
Nathan Wosnack (CCO, Bitnation):
"The Bitcoin blockchain marriage, organized by Bitnation and CoinOutlet to bring David Mondrus and Joyce Bayo together was by far the most touching moments of the Coins in the Kingdom conference. Jeffrey Tucker who was officiating this marriage gave an emotional and touching speech, followed by live music by Tatiana Moroz. I expect many more BitMarriage's in the very near future, as I believe also happened in the Netherlands the same day on the blockchain. I am confirming that with Abhimanyu Dayal from our Ambassador's network and we will follow up with Cointelegraph on this soon."
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