Hitoshi Matsushima, a University of Tokyo professor, and University of British Columbia’s Shunya Noda have been heading the venture, which intends to resolve legal issues without any necessity for an expensive legal procedure.
In the media release, the University of Tokyo explained that the system is based on advancement of prevailing ideas related to smart contracts without a need for centralized management.
The University states that the advantages of the system is that several phases happen outside the blockchain, which only take part in the process of holding data related to parties who are part of the dispute.
Professor Matsushima offers extra info with regard to the structure of the blockchain powered system:
“On suspected violation of some agreement, those involved post their opinions to this digital court. The court algorithmically aggregates the parties’ opinions and judges who violated their agreement. If the digital court judges that a party violated the agreement, the party is fined by withholding a deposit made during the initial agreement.”
Nevertheless, they explain that there is a prime element that they must contest with this system.
The technology, as per the academics, has received bad review from media because of its decentralized characteristics. In reality, they voiced worries that the digital court would face similar problem.
Matsushima replied to the worries, stating:
“Blockchains in some ways are a double-edged sword. But this kind of system signals the dawn of a new economic paradigm that must be embraced and explored rather than feared and ignored.”
This “digital court” system is not a unique concept. Aragon Court revealed that it has rolled out a decentralized online court on February 12.
At that time, the group backing the structure of the platform intended to ward off “traditional artificial barriers such as national jurisdictions or the borders of a single country” in the matter of arbitrating disagreements.