Jur Creates Trust For Business Relationships
Jur is a new platform for contract creation, dispute resolution, and settlement enforcement that can also be used as a stand-alone voting system.
We are building the Jur voting system (currently testing an alpha version) on the blockchain to provide a secure decentralized Oracle that will select between two propositions in good faith. Jur uses game theory and economic incentives to deliver fair results quickly at almost zero cost
Easy to Use and Affordable
You can use a wizard to record an agreement as a smart legal contract, deposits funds into escrow to pay out when the contract is complete, and attach it to a free dispute resolution system in case there is a disagreement about how to settle. Because cryptocurrency values may fluctuate, users may opt to create the escrow using a stablecoin. This service is available for a small percentage fee in the low single digits.
It’s affordable — close to free, just gas costs for processing for up to three contracts month — and anyone can use it. It is cost-effective even for small deals agreements, but it’s also blockchain secure to backup agreements involving large amounts of money too.
Built Simple to Support Complexity
Decentralization is the core of Jur’s philosophy.
Our approach to legal complexity is to begin by eliminating it; what has grown organically is prohibitively and unnecessarily complex.
Jur eliminates unnecessary complexity for simple agreements, but a marketplace of user-created Communities (formerly called Hubs) will provide just the right amount of additional complexity for users who need structure and voters with special qualifications. For example, a user could create a Community where only structural engineers with experience as expert witnesses would be allowed to vote.
In the short term, Jur is the perfect solution for simple agreements, like creating a cryptocurrency escrow to guarantee an OTC fiat to crypto-exchange, depositing payments for a performance marketing contract that guarantees meeting clear KPIs, or writing contracts related to manage the process of investing in ICOs.
In the long term, the Jur platform will allow users to create an ecosystem of specialized Communities to deliver rulings on more complex disputes.
The Problem: Slow, Costly Dispute Resolution Stifles Business
People use contracts to guarantee business relationships, but a contract is only as good as the enforcement mechanism that backs it up.
When a new partner acts in bad faith, courts and arbitration are so costly and slow they are often useless. Enforcing agreements internationally is particularly difficult. Businesses are hesitant to forge new relationships.
Many people can’t afford to pursue justice if they get cheated. For those who can, it still costs a discouraging amount. That stifles growth, as businesses fear to create new relationships.
Lack of trust in business relationships costs businesses and consumers trillions of dollars in direct and indirect costs for forgone opportunities. Digital technology and infrastructure offer the potential for global cooperation, but our social technology of legal systems has not kept pace. Current systems of contract creation, dispute resolution, and enforcement are local, complex, and Byzantine. You can read more about the limitations of currently available solutions here.
Sellers
If you transact in real goods or sell services for amounts between $100 and $100,000, chances are you’ve been disappointed in the outcome of a deal and didn’t have any good option to try to pursue a fairer result. In the US alone, in a single year, freelancers will enter into over a billion contracts to deliver over a trillion dollars worth of services. The average digital freelance contract is under $1,000. Small claims court costs are low, but may still exceed the potential amount recoverable. This trillion dollar market is woefully underserved currently. Jur is a perfect solution for freelancers who sometimes have trouble getting paid.
Buyers
If you buy real goods or services for a business or your home, you may have suffered some loss or inconvenience when a vendor failed to deliver. With Jur, you can use a wizard to write a contract with a clear penalty clause for failure to deliver services and require the seller to make an escrow deposit in case of failure to deliver.
The Jur Solution: A Voluntary Jury On The Blockchain That Delivers Justice For Free
With Jur, people can deposit payments into an escrow knowing that if there is a dispute, the centralized Oracle will deliver a fair resolution quickly at zero cost. JUR token holders volunteer to help find justice because they are rewarded for choosing the position that receives the most votes.
How Jur Works
Any time a contract dispute over a contract arises, both parties to the dispute propose a way to resolve the dispute. People who own JUR tokens can vote their tokens on the resolution that they believe is the fairest, or chose to abstain from voting. The standard voting period is 24 hours, although Jur may introduce a feature to allow users to select longer periods.
Jurors who vote for the majority position can receive the tokens of jurors who voted for the minority position. The possibility of earning tokens or losing tokens motivates Jurors to vote fairly.
Self Interest Guarantees Jurors Will Strive to Choose Fair Outcomes
Jurors earn tokens by choosing the same proposal the majority chooses. When a rational actor is offered an opportunity to predict what the majority will say is fair to win tokens, their only logical strategy is to make an honest attempt to predict and vote only if they are over 50% confident that they can predict the consensus opinion on what is fair. Game theory shows that other strategies result in financial losses. Those who do not see this about the voting process can learn the error of voting without adequate knowledge by paying their tokens to wiser voters.
Furthermore, the tokens they earn are useful and valuable if the majority chooses fairly, but lose value when the majority chooses unfairly. Each Juror knows the other Jurors have a stake in the value of JUR, so they can predict the majority will choose fairly, and vote correctly to earn tokens. Could a wealthy group try to take over Jur and create unfair outcomes? To do so would devalue the asset (50.1% of JUR!) they had just captured at an immense cost, so there is no rational motivation to try to do that for direct financial gain. A competitor could attack Jur, but such an attack would be immensely costly.
Now you have an idea of the theory behind the voting system. Let’s take a look at two people using Jur in a hypothetical example of contract creation, escrow, and dispute resolution.
An Example Of The Jur Process
Enter Contract and Make Escrow Deposit
Alice wants to hire Bob to write 10 articles. Alice uses a free Jur wizard to create a simple smart contract detailing her agreement with Bob and setting out clear performance benchmarks. Alice puts $1,000 in escrow to pay Bob, and each gets a code for the contract.
If Bob Completes Work and Parties Agree, Sign & Settle
If both parties are satisfied when the work is complete, they provide their codes to the smart contract and unlock the payment.
If Contract Parties Disagree Then Open a Dispute and Make Proposals:
Rejecting one article, Alice proposes to pay Bob $900 — Bob wants $975. Alice votes $10 worth of Jur to open the dispute.
All JUR Owners Can Vote — Winning Proposal Selected in 24 Hours:
JUR token owners vote 150 JUR total for Alice (including Alice’s own vote), 100 JUR for Bob. Alice Wins.
Escrow Paid Out According to Winning Proposal: Alice gets $100 back, Bob is paid $900.
Majority Proposal Voters Rewarded with Tokens of Minority Proposal Voters: the 100 JUR tokens voted for Bob are given to the people who voted the first 100.1 tokens for Alice. The voters who voted for Bob lose their tokens.
Uses of Jur
OTC Transactions
A Jur smart contract can be used to create an escrow guarantee for an exchange of fiat currency for cryptocurrency. Both parties deposit sufficient Jur to replace their promised transfer if they fail to make the transfer. If one party does not transfer, the other party can submit a dispute and receive the counter-party’s escrow deposit when the Oracle rules in their favor. Jur is the ideal easy-to-use, very low-cost tool to provide security for OTC transactions, with current monthly values of well over a billion dollars.
Simple Service Contracts
Simple, well-defined enforceable contracts to buy and sell services. Digital marketing, web design, graphic design, software and app development. As noted about, the US freelance market involves over a billion contracts a year with an average value of less than $1,000. These small sums cannot be cost-effectively recovered in small claims court in the event a dispute, so this trillion dollar market is underserved.
ICO Investments
ICO leaders, being familiar with the blockchain, are likely early adopter of Jur for simple service contracts. ICO projects can also use Jur to create contracts to guarantee secure investment and token distribution.
Property Transfer
Contracts and deposits for transfers of real property, intellectual property, web domains, etc.
Increasingly Complex and Specialized Contracts
As Jur grows in popularity, an increasing number of experts from different technical fields will hold JUR tokens, allowing users to submit increasingly complex and specialized contracts knowing there are Jurors who can make a fair ruling in case of a dispute.
Human Backup for Automatic “Smart Contracts”
What if your smart contract or the external data source is hacked? Jur provides an easy option for a human court of appeals for smart contract glitches when they happen.
Follow Jur to a Better Future
Jur is building a better future — a new, frictionless economy where individuals and businesses around the world can create guaranteed mutual trust with complete strangers. To learn more about Jur, you can read our whitepaper and follow us on medium to keep up with the latest developments.
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