Easy Smart Contract & Escrow 12 Step Guide: Buy & Sell a Book on Blockchain with the Jur Beta Platform
Jur Oracle Nasser Al Humood and Jur Oracle Candidate Hugo Soto have completed the purchase and sale of a book using a Jur contract and escrow. Their experience provides a complete 12 step guide, so you can easily make your own contract and escrow and complete the payment on Jur Beta Platform in less than half an hour.
By reading this article…
… you will learn how to use the Jur Beta Platform to craft contracts on the blockchain by seeing how two Jur community members have used it to sell and buy a book. In particular this article will:
1 — Present screenshots of every step of this process to show how easy it is to use the platform.
2 — Show a record of the transaction fees and show how much it costs to use the Jur Beta Platform to prove that it is inexpensive.
3 — Provide details about the wallets addresses, TX IDs ( transaction IDs ), and finally the contract’s ID so that anyone can view and verify them.
First, we asked Nasser and Hugo a bit about themselves and why they chose to become Jur Oracles. (Read about more about the Oracles program here.)
Nasser: I am a computer and electrical engineer. I’m passionate about technology and football.
I did the Jur contract with Hugo because being one of the first to try a new technology can shed light on the innovation and bring valuable data for future improvements. I have been an advocate for blockchain and the value it can bring to our daily life.
Jur is one of the companies that aim to solve real-world problems by bridging the gap between the legal system and individuals/consumers seeking financial protection. Trying out this new technology and testing the platform with a real transaction proved to be feasible and easy, it was a great smooth experience that is almost ready for mass adoption.
Hugo: I got involved as a Jur Oracle because I think the product is one of the best in terms of using the blockchain to serve a real use case and do something more than just offer a different form of money.
I have focused on Supply Chain, Oil and Gas, and Technology, exploring different aspects of the supply chain, from data analytics, to contract management and logistics working for big companies like Schlumberger and Hewlett Packard.
In my book “The Logistics Advantage” I share some insights about one of the most crucial parts of Supply Chain Management to make it easy for people to start thinking in a way that is conducive to making good decisions about logistics. The best advice I can share from the book is summarized in the last paragraph of the book: The world will continue to change, and people should make an effort to continue to read, learn, and move forward.
As far as how Jur will play into the supply chain, that is still to be seen, but I can see a place for it in contract management for data that isn’t particularly transactional, like big projects, partnerships, service agreements, etc.
Hugo offered to sell his book to Nasser using a Jur contract. Their deal is pretty simple. Nasser will pay Hugo 2,000 Jur when a signed copy of his book arrives at Nasser’s house. They went through the easy process to record the contract, agree to it, deposit the escrow payment, agree to mark the contract as a success, and the payment transferred and the contract was closed. All for about $2 in gas fees to VeChain.
[Editor’s note: That amount would not be significantly larger for a larger escrow amount or a longer more complex contract.]
How to create a Jur contract and escrow and complete the payment in 12 easy steps.
Things you will need to create a contract
You will need to install the Comet extension on your browser and you will need a VET compatible wallet. You will also need someone to enter into an agreement with ( a “counter-party” ) and a description of your agreement. A legal contract is ideal. It can be a PDF or word document. Both parties will need some VTHO for VeChain gas fees and at least one party should have JUR to deposit into escrow to pay the other party.
Step 1 — The party creating the contract goes to beta.jur.io and clicks create a contract.
First, with the Comet browser extension installed, go to https://beta.jur.io/.
The Comet browser will provide your wallet address.
Here are Nasser and Hugo’s wallet addresses.
Nasser: 0x3d566C5b26eCaB7529e3C10efD8fCBE2688dB549
https://explore.vechain.org/accounts/0x3d566c5b26ecab7529e3c10efd8fcbe2688db549
Hugo: 0xba42baa4e436c9baabd257c90eb23a8bca16b1af
Nasser’s beginning balance was: 2,000 JUR and 5,500 VTHO.
Hugo’s beginning balance was : 0 JUR and 729.19VTHO
Here is the first screen for contract creation with Jur Beta Product, viewed by Nasser with Comet installed. You can see Nasser’s wallet balance in the top right.
Step 2 — Enter Counterparty Details
Click on contract creation and you will see this page.
Nasser filled in the counterparty details information, providing Hugo’s wallet and email address.
Step 3 — Enter Contract Details
Click Next and you will see the Contract Details form.
As you can see, there are plenty of options starting with KPIs and deadlines, followed by penalties and more details. The penalties feature allows a seller to make a guarantee; if they don’t deliver as promised, they will pay some or all of the money escrowed for the penalty amount to the buyer, per their agreement in the contract. This is optional, not required.
Nasser filled in the contract details.
The person who creates the contract will have to pay slightly more gas fees. But either the buyer or the seller can create the contract.
Step 4 — Pay gas fees for initial contract creation
To store the information on the blockchain, Nasser had to pay a gas fee. This is for VeChain processing, not for Jur. Jur will charge no fees for this process. Free escrow accounts & contracts! We will add up all the VeChain gas fees at the end.
Step 5 — Send the contract to your counterparty
Having completed the information, Nasser clicked to save the contract and send to counterparty, and this is what he saw, a contract details screen that shows Nasser’s recent activity of sending it to Hugo near the top right. Now it’s Hugo’s turn.
Step 6 — Counterparty receives the invitation and accepts
Your counterparty will see the invitation when they visit https://beta.jur.io/.
When they click on the contract, they will be invited to accept it.
Step 7 — Pay transaction fee to accept
The counterparty must pay a transaction fee to process the contract acceptance on VeChain.
And then you will able to see the contract on the blockchain!
https://explore.vechain.org/accounts/0x26906e446a96d8d85634e7a3c7d92c0105eb1c36/
The counterparty (in this case, Hugo) will see that they are confirmed to enter into the agreement. Hugo then waits for Nasser, the buyer, to deposit 2,000 JUR.
Step 8 — Buyer pays the deposit to fund the escrow
Since Hugo, the seller has accepted, Nasser, the buyer, now sees this: Accepted “The Logistics Advantage: Common Sense, Logistics, & Transportation” — Book Sale. Confirmed to enter 2,000 JUR contract.
Nasser now sees a button for payment, so he can make his escrow deposit of 2,000 JUR.
Step 9 — Pay gas fee for deposit processing
After clicking on payment, Nasser gets this notice for gas fees to process the payment.
Nasser makes the payment and then he sees that the contract details show that he has paid, and Nasser and Hugo have entered into the contract. Now they can either select dispute or success for the outcome.
Notice Nasser’s JUR balance is zero now. That is because Nasser’s JUR are held in the contract and are not in his wallet position now.
Hugo does not have those JUR tokens yet. They are in the contract, waiting for Nasser and Hugo to agree it was a success.
Here is the contract record on the blockchain.
https://explore.vechain.org/accounts/0x885da15b2dc57d18f5114c0d74eeb6cabbb054e6/
After Nasser and Hugo set up the contract, Hugo sent the package and the tracking number.
Step 10 — First party marks contract a success
Hugo clicked Success to mark the contract a success.
Hugo then saw this screen.
Step 11 — Second party marks contract a success. You are almost done!
Nasser could see that Hugo had marked the contract a success.
Nasser agreed and clicked success.
Step 12 — Both parties pay the final fee. Escrowed funds are transferred and the contract is closed.
Here is the fee for processing the transaction.
Now they can see the contract activities section indicates that Nasser and Hugo agreed and closed the contract.
Here is Hugo’s last fee.
And here are the total fees.
VTHO Calculation ( fees ) :
===========================================
Nasser : 5500–2160.69 = 3339.31 VTHO =~ $2.07
Hugo : 729.19 − 519.82 = 209.37 VTHO =~ $0.13
Total Fees on both =~ $2.20**
===========================================
* at the price of VTHO when the contract was done = $0.000622
So there you have it.
Easy contract and escrow creation on Jur for around $2. What are you waiting for? Invite a friend and try one yourself and share your experience with the community!
