Divorce on the blockchain? This company can help you do it

Rage Comment : We all know that lawyers charge very high fees, but in most cases, legal affairs require the help of lawyers, which makes it difficult for many people to afford it. Have you ever thought about being able to handle some simple legal matters without hiring a lawyer? With the development of blockchain, an emerging technology, it is not impossible to achieve this. StonePaper is an application that aims to enable the public to handle legal matters on their own without paying expensive lawyer fees. The application is currently in the testing stage. How does it work? This article will answer you one by one.

Translation: Clover

StonePaper allows users to handle legal matters through blockchain without hiring a lawyer.

Whether you’re dealing with a divorce, eviction, or wrongful termination, most Canadians will need the help of a lawyer at some point, but many can’t afford the high costs of hiring one. According to the 2016 Legal Cost Survey conducted by Canadian Lawyer, the average cost of an uncontested divorce in Ontario is $1,302, and even a simple will costs $521.

One Toronto-based developer thinks blockchain can help solve this problem. Matthew Rappard, 33, wants to empower people to handle their own legal affairs without having to pay expensive lawyers. That's the idea behind StonePaper, an app that launched in February 2016 and is currently in an invitation-only beta, meaning the public can sign up by invitation.

A mother who has not received child support can file a complaint through the blockchain without hiring a lawyer.

Using the blockchain technology underlying the cryptocurrency Ethereum (an alternative to Bitcoin) and combining it with contracts written by lawyers, users will be able to file and complete legal matters entirely through the service. Information stored on the blockchain is "immutable," or cannot be changed. While in a normal database, a contract could be easily tampered with, this technology stores the entire contract on thousands of computers around the world. Anyone can see that a specific contract was created and can verify that it is a real contract, but cannot read it without the user's permission.

Electronic contracts can be signed like any other type of contract. Users will be given a storage address for where the contract is stored on the blockchain.

How it might work: A mother who doesn't receive child support could file a complaint through the blockchain without hiring a lawyer, and the blockchain would automatically notify the father and generate the necessary paperwork for the case.

The father can then use the same contract to generate a report to defend himself, pay child support, or take any other necessary steps to resolve the issue. All payments can be made through the blockchain so that the court has a complete list of transactions. This will perfectly reduce the cost of litigation and enable users to resolve many legal issues themselves.

StonePaper will provide each user with a unique identity. Rappard said in an interview:

“You can open an account to create an Ethereum wallet, and then the bank or lawyer will solemnly promise that wallet is yours. Now, if you go to any location and sign a document, when you click ‘send’, the entire document will be digitally signed using that wallet.”

StonePaper will make the contracts it recommends people use open source. Rappard expects that as the technology becomes more common, people will "break the law and make their own." So far, he advises people not to sign electronic contracts that they cannot review the code, and lawyers will only deal with experienced developers.

Fees for services will vary depending on the attorney and the type of contract used.

Rappard explained:

“Anyone can write a contract, but lawyers are generally better at it. And because electronic contracts are governed by the same laws as paper contracts, you can let lawyers do some of the more complex processes.”

Given the recent hack of investment platforms built on the Ethereum blockchain, there have been some security concerns.

Still, concerns about security have been raised recently due to the recent hack of the Distributed Autonomous Organization (DAO), an investment platform built on the Ethereum blockchain. The platform was designed to take money from investors and invest it in projects that investors voted on through smart contracts. Due to a vulnerability in the code, a hacker stole about $60 million worth of ether (Ethereum's digital currency) from DAO's funds.

Rappard said that while the DAO hack raised a number of issues with smart contracts, StonePaper is not vulnerable to similar attacks.

“The DAO hack was not caused by a security vulnerability in Ethereum, but rather a vulnerability in the software that The DAO ran,” he said, adding that StonePaper had learned from the DAO incident. “The StonePaper contract can only be modified if the wallet accessing it is one of the signatories. This effectively blocks hackers in the same way that a password protects a computer. If a signatory tries to hack the contract, it is considered a breach of contract under the law and the user will be penalized.”

Not everyone is happy with the technology, which is to be expected.

Rappard noted:

“The biggest hurdle is actually how to get people familiar with the blockchain mindset. Some people generally don’t trust computers if they can avoid it. Judges and lawyers may be particularly cautious about this new technology.” However, many people cannot afford legal services because of their high costs, so a form of legal service like this will be particularly attractive.