Jur: The Justice As A Service Infrastructure
Bringing The Power Of The Wisdom Of The Crowd To The People Using The Blockchain
Old cities in Europe have a special quaint charm compared to cities built entirely in the 20th century. They grew over time, forming along natural boundaries, winding roads following rivers, mazes of allies growing organically off the main routes. Charming as they are, they can be like a labyrinth compared to the purposeful squared off efficiency of a more recent city.
Our government-run legal systems for resolving contract disputes are a bit like old cities. They grew gradually and incrementally over time. Pieces and parts, new concepts and rules were added as they became necessary, cobbled onto the ancient structures. The result is a legal system that can serve all manner of cases, but it is Byzantine, complex, costly, slow, and generally inefficient. You can read more about the limitations of current options here and the nature and cost of this complexity in our earlier article here.
Jur proposes a new solution, designed from the ground up to be efficient, simple, affordable, and easy to use. Jur will serve justice as a service, using the blockchain to deliver the wisdom of the crowd quickly and at a minimal cost. In addition to backing up Jur’s own native smart legal agreements with dispute resolution, Jur will also provide an API that will allow external smart contracts, centralized platforms, and distributed applications alike to access the dispute resolution feature, thus providing “Justice As A Service” to the global community at very low cost.
When Simpler Is Better
Some disputes require a complex structure to guide parties to fair resolution of disputes. But many cases where there are disputes go unresolved because the unnecessary complexity of the legal system results in costs that are greater than the amounts in dispute. For many agreements between small businesses, small claims court burdens render seeking resolution there a fool’s errand. Slightly larger deals fall between the high entry costs for regular court and the cutoff point for small claims court, leaving no viable option but arbitration, which can cost 50% of the amount under dispute and take months. Thus for many agreements, there is no viable option for dispute resolution.
Consider, for example, a case where an online store has contracted a content marketer to write 10 articles for $1,000. If a dispute arises, it will take $1,000 worth of time and money to resolve it in small claims court. If a dispute arises over a large performance marketing package worth $30,000, a small claims court is out of the question; the amount is above the cutoff. But a regular court is not a good choice either — legal costs and court fees will quite possibly eat up most of the amount in dispute. Neither of these scenarios requires the full wondrous and powerful complexity of our formal legal systems. Much of this complexity is arguably needed for some cases, but certainly not for all.
Jur Open Layer Offers A Better Alternative For Simple Disputes
Jur’s base layer is open to all holders of JUR tokens for voting. Voters are motivated to earn reward tokens by voting fairly and avoid losing tokens by voting unfairly. Consequently, users that are not confident in choosing the fair resolution for a dispute will abstain. Confident voters will vote fairly. When no particular expertise is required, the base layer provides the wisdom of the crowd for free and provides it quickly. You can learn more about the basics of the Jur voting system in this article.
Jur Communities Will Offer A Better Alternative For Many Complex Disputes
The Jur Community (formerly called “Hub”) feature allows users to create “Communities” with special eligibility requirements for voters and guidelines for interpreting disputes. A Community for large mercantile contracts could require voters to show they are accredited lawyers in good standing and incorporate the Universal Commercial Code by reference. A Community for cases involving engineering services could incorporate relevant best practices guidelines from a professional association and require voters to show engineering credentials and even a history of testimony as an expert witness in conventional courts. In essence, a Community allows the “Creator(s)” of the Community to offer the best of the current legal system but only the parts that are needed or build their own better system. It is an open, decentralized, competitive approach to providing just the right amount of complexity. Users can choose between competing Communities.
Jur Advantages: Effective, Easy, Quick, Affordable
Jur is simple but effective. Our game theory shows that the wisdom of the crowd plus economic incentives will equal fair resolutions delivered fast. As long as the contracts are clear and fairly simple, ordinary people can and will choose fairly, motivated by the desire to earn rewards and avoid forfeiting their voted tokens which are, in effect, a surety bond to guarantee their good faith in voting fairly.
Jur is easy to use. Using meta-wizards, people with good ideas about how to structure contracts can easily create wizards that allow contract users to create and customize effective contracts that have the force of law easily and integrate the free dispute resolution system that also carries the force of law. The judgment of Jur voters distributes the escrow immediately, so there should be no need to resort to courts anyway. The force of law merely guarantees the decision cannot be reversed.
Jur is quick. In order to receive rewards, voters must vote early enough that their vote is required to create or maintain the majority, so there is a strong motivation to render judgment quickly. Users can set any time limit on dispute resolution, but the standard is a mere 24 hours.
Jur is very affordable. For users who make their own contracts and use less than five a month, Jur’s base layer is free. The only cost is “gas cost” for processing nodes on the Ethereum blockchain, just a few euro per contract and dispute resolution.
Jur Use Cases
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 tokens 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 will work well on Jur for early adopters. Digital marketing, web design, graphic design, software, and app development are examples. 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.
How To Join The Dispute Resolution Revolution
Jur is introducing a platform that will create a watershed shift in how we resolve disputes. Moving from slow and costly centralized dispute resolution to fast and affordable decentralized dispute resolution is a true paradigm change. We will free users from localized inefficient legacy systems and allow them to enter a new global community of justice.
The Jur ICO will take place in December 2018. At that time, anyone can buy JUR tokens and begin creating contracts and escrows and participate by voting on disputes.
In the meantime, the Jur Team will be refining our approach and developing our system with the guidance of experts and thought leaders from around the globe. If you would like to participate in developing and promoting Jur you can apply to join the Jur Alliance which will launch in October 2018. You can read the Jur Alliance Manifesto here.
Get on board and help create a new era of fearless global cooperation by providing robust decentralized dispute resolution supplemented by a platform that makes it easy for anyone to create a smart legal agreement.
Learn More about Jur
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