"So, like sales tax. Which we have uniform and open laws for. Or income tax. Which we have uniform and open laws for."
Laws are not mechanisms, proof of transaction, records etc..
'Smart Contracts' as something unassailable in courts are ridiculous obviously.
But 'smart contracts' that facilitate micro-transactions, every day purchases, and flow through the system without human interaction seem like a good idea.
Imagine when you buy that thing on your Business Visa, and the 'smart contract' is signed, sent to head office, sent to your accounting software, balanced, money in your bank account immediately etc.. All with a series of signed elements.
I understand that's not exactly what it's supposed to look like, but that's the kind of thing I see happening.
While you could say 'there should be a standard for that' it might be that the standards are not nimble enough, and a more generic 'start contract' system could work to tie it all together.
And maybe importantly: to skip VISA and classical banks while we're at it.
> Imagine when you buy that thing on your Business Visa, and the 'smart contract' is signed, sent to head office, sent to your accounting software, balanced, money in your bank account immediately etc.. All with a series of signed elements.
This already happens at every company I've ever worked for, modulo the "in your bank account immediately" part. But that's down to how cash flow works, which is fundamental to most businesses/industries and can't be solved by anything other than time travel or teleportation. No amount of crypto is going to change the fact that the restaurant needs to sell a completed before it can pay the cook for their prep work. Even if bank transactions were immediate, most people would have to wait until their next paycheck to get reimbursements.
The underlying technology is a 90s relational database, some html/javascript/php, a bunch of java, and probably some cobol somewhere.
> And maybe importantly: to skip VISA and classical banks while we're at it.
As much as I hate the privacy invasion of cc companies and banks knowing everything I buy, the idea of my entire financial life being published on a public chain is waaay more creepy. Like most normal humans, I am mildly creeped out by big companies knowing things about me but would be seriously angry if my manager, pastor, or mother-in-law knew those same things.
'The way it works today' is a bit cludgy and there's actually no reason you couldn't have the reimbursement instantly. The 'non tech' reason would be related to internal approvals, but with the right tech, it would be streamlined.
It's also possible that the government could get some of their taxes right away. Obviously not in call cases due to varying accounting issues, but it could work.
FYI there's no reason for 'all your transactions to be on the blockchain' - that's just the way it works today but that can change.
Regular expenses are generally not burdened by cash flow. You get your regular expenses at the 'end of the month' as a matter of process, not because the company is waiting for customers to pay for stuff, so they can pay you.
As an employee, you're not there to provide working capital for your company, so if you're buying something really that the company should be paying for, they should be able to pay for it immediately.
> Regular expenses are generally not burdened by cash flow. You get your regular expenses at the 'end of the month' as a matter of process, not because the company is waiting for customers to pay for stuff, so they can pay you.
Again, this may be true in Corporate America, but it's far less true in small businesses (which are a huge fraction of any economy).
> As an employee, you're not there to provide working capital for your company
No, that's the role of my credit card company (and what's more, they pay me for the pleasure & my only real expense is divulging my employer's spend).
This part is interesting, the idea that enforcement and legislation are one in the same. However, for taxes, this would only just prevent tax fraud, right? There’s not really “mechanisms” for taxes. Congress passes the laws. You follow them when you file your taxes, or you may be audited later and fined/jailed.
> to skip VISA and classical banks while we’re at it
Loan pools and such are interesting, basically community lending. I’m not sure how much we could skip VISA. It’s a payment processor. You need someone to submit your transactions to nodes. In reality, they are of course going to charge a fee because they can make money. Just like VISA. One advantage is I guess they won’t have VISA’s prudish objections to certain kinds of transactions.
Laws are not mechanisms, proof of transaction, records etc..
'Smart Contracts' as something unassailable in courts are ridiculous obviously.
But 'smart contracts' that facilitate micro-transactions, every day purchases, and flow through the system without human interaction seem like a good idea.
Imagine when you buy that thing on your Business Visa, and the 'smart contract' is signed, sent to head office, sent to your accounting software, balanced, money in your bank account immediately etc.. All with a series of signed elements.
I understand that's not exactly what it's supposed to look like, but that's the kind of thing I see happening.
While you could say 'there should be a standard for that' it might be that the standards are not nimble enough, and a more generic 'start contract' system could work to tie it all together.
And maybe importantly: to skip VISA and classical banks while we're at it.