Clause Public Beta Demo – Transcription of Live Event

Clause Public Beta Demo –

(This is an account – typed in real time – of the Public Beta launch and demo of 2 use cases. Hopefully this adds a little more detail to what is now possible.)

 

Matt Roberts – Clause –

What we’ve been working on for the last 12 months.

All of this is available after this call.

Lot of debate about the value of smart contracts.

We will make a real transfer of money. Real signature.

 

1 – we have agreed the terms of the contract – we bring in the Clause platform.

The trigger is the collection of all the signatures.

Once provided payment is triggered, via 3rdparty system called Stripe.

In this scenario, only one simple trigger, and one action.

In more complex examples there is scope for more options, e.g. scheduled payments based on milestones, or triggered by external system.

I don’t need to understand any markup or coding, I just drag into Clause and configure it.

(continued shortly)

As we build this smart contract you can see the steps that have been taken and they have been logged. When anything added or changed.

All logged up to signature.

And then post-execution is logged too.

Now ready to send out to signature. Work with partner HelloSign.

Reminded to review. Sign a PDF rendering of the contract.

Status of contract has now changed.

The buyer – in the contract – not need to be on Clause platform.

Now, we have collected 2 signatures. That triggers the contract. So can process the payment.

It shows that the smart legal agreement has ‘completed’.

Can see in Stripe a reference to the payment.

 

Now, pause….questions….

…. we have done integrations with several applications, not just Stripe.

…need pay subscriptions? Yes, need a HelloSign account.

Moving on.

2nd use case. There have been many efforts to collect info on blockchain in logistics, supply chains.

But this example will settle a payment via Ethereum – goods are tracked and information on temperature / conditions etc impact the price of the goods in real time.

This smart contract is operating off-chain, but can still use a ledger to store the data.

….the use case…

start with a supply agreement with a perishable goods clause.

re. avocados.

remove the non-computable clause……add in computable clause.

add in parameters and add this to contract.

we validate the new clause….makes sure it meets constraints of the system.

the clause contains the payment aspects and the logic.

we add the importer details.

There is an API that allows to send a token.

We will do an Ether transaction.

Then we collect signatures. Inc. from the importer.

We can then see the clause is now active, and running.

So that means it is ‘listening’ for information from the blockchain.

We can simulate those sensors. The info is stored on the ledger.

The info triggers the clause and sets a new balanced for the exporter and importer.

We get an execution log, this is validated. We can see the Ether transaction was made.

Pause…..

Qu – can integrate with other Blockchain….? will answer shortly.

Now….how we got here.

Michael Grover…(?)….of Clause – focus on user experience.

in the open beta the aim is an intuitive experience.

we not want to force new ways of working.

have integrations with existing systems people use to draft and sign contracts.

Clause is still in beta – you can be a part of this.

we look forward to how you use Clause.

Now…

Diana of Clause on new features – contract editor.

Can browse smart clauses and add in.

Validations errors are shown so can check.

….

This UI is user friendly.

We plan to improve to make more accessible to non-technical people.

Provides a rich audit trail – can see whole history of the contract.

…..

Dan Selman – CTO – Clause…..speaking now

we are far from over – this is the end of the beginning.

next 3 months –

blockchain (BC) is part of our DNA – we got into this via BC…..but agnostic.

we’ve made series of moves re. a DLT agonistic approach.

Tezos..their $$$$ will help to run on their BC. Can run on this. IBM business partner also.

working also on R3

– also doing JAVA support for Accord Project language Ergo.

it’s all interesting –

we are still in Beta….but soon be at Production Quality. will happen in next month or so.

collaborative editing, red-lining, etc will develop…….on the contracts…

we have supported apps…..

now just Stripe and HelloSign…..but will be many, many more soon.

this will cover accounting platforms…..so can synch payments with accounts.

also fiat payment gateways…..and crypto payments…..

and other signature systems….DocuSign is the gorilla in the mist….people want us to have that.

and also notifications…

e.g. hook Clause to Slack…..used by lot of people.

would be cool to see info from Clause in Slack channels….

would be v int.

then….APIs……the main one is the trigger API (see above)….

also, do more on programmatic creation of contracts…..

hopefully that gives a sense of what we are working on. 

And now Peter Hunn – founder –

this is a sea change in commercial contracting.

this is just a start

we are leading the way.

contracts with an IT infrastructure…..

benefits –

real time state –

when payment made –

share data between systems….

e.g. take IOT info.

once have this can get notifications…

or use data for analytics…..

 

questions…..

validate….? How? …explains….

do english words match the execution semantics of smart clause…?

so need a human being to read this .…need legal tech engineers….

how do API for developers….?

yes – can do.

working with several already.

e.g. ThinFim and NFC chips.

we provide also HTTP integration…..and more…..

user access control…?

when start account – get a personal account.

can use all of platform….but on your own…

so, can have an org. account now also

you can then invite others into this and share and collaborate on the Clause dashboard.

we will add finer grained access control e.g. edit controls.

watch this space.

how make own smart clauses…i.e. not use Clause.io’s.

– yes, can do this.

it is open spec.

we encourage to use our tooling, to then make your own.

need to automatically execute clauses…?

no….can do without smart clause.

e.g. can do without having to make an auto-payment.

instead it makes an invoice….

or just tell someone there is a need to make a payment – that can be offline.

but this makes delays……(also removes point of this…. AL) 

business model…?

will be priced ……details of price will be soon.

SaaS model.

wrap up there.

you can come and sign up and use.

Thanks!

 


AL – and that’s all folks. Hope that was useful. Remember to sign up and start exploring what you can do. Note: looks free at the moment too….!