NYU law professors argue ‘personal growth bets’ using smart contracts should be legal
The duo’s paper says self-contracts can help you quit smoking or lose weight, but incentives such as putting a bomb in your skull would surely test the limits of the law. New York University School of Law professors Max Raskin and Jack Millman recently published a paper in the Journal on Emerging Technologies discussing the legalities surrounding the use of blockchain-based smart contracts for the purpose of ‘personal growth bets.’ According to the duo, personal growth bets are single-party contracts that a person would engage in with themselves. The purpose of these contracts would generally be for the purpose of self improvement — to either start or stop a certain act during a given period of time or by a certain date. The researchers use the notions of quitting smoking or losing weight to describe the concept. Per their paper: “For example, a rough outline of such a bet would be: if Max does not lose 10 pounds over the next six months, he must pay Jack $1,000. Whereas, if he does ...