MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY MASTER THESIS SMART CONTRACT – ACHIEVEMENT OF BLOCKCHAIN APPLICATION, LOOPHOLES AND RECOMMENDATION FOR VIETNAM Specialization: Master of International Trade Law and Policy HO MINH KHUE Hanoi - 2020 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY MASTER THESIS SMART CONTRACT – ACHIEVEMENT OF BLOCKCHAIN APPLICATION, LOOPHOLES AND RECOMMENDATION FOR VIETNAM Major: International economics Specialization: Master of International Trade Law and Policy Code: 8310106 Full name: Ho Minh Khue Supervisor: Dr Nguyen Ngoc Ha Hanoi- 2020 i STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP I, Ho Minh Khue, confirm that this Master thesis has been written solely by the undersigned and contains the work of no other person or people except where explicitly identified to the contrary I also state that said Master thesis has not been submitted elsewhere for the fulfillment of any other qualification I make this statement in full knowledge of and understanding that, should it be found to be false, I will not receive a grade and many face disciplinary proceedings Signature: rd Date: 23 March 2020 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my supervisor Dr Nguyen Ngoc Ha as well as our principal, Faculty of Graduate Studies and all professors of Foreign Trade University who game the golden opportunity to this wonderful projects on the topic “Smart contract – Achievement of Blockchain application, loopholes and recommendation for Vietnam”, which also helped me in doing a lot of research and I came to know about so many new things I am really thankful to them Secondly, I would also like to thank my parents and friends who helped me a lot in finalizing this project within the limited time frame iii CONTENTS STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv LIST OF TABLE SUMMARY OF THESIS RESEARCH RESULTS v INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1: UNDERSTANDING OF BLOCKCHAIN APPLICATION AND SMART CONTRACTS 1.1 Definition of Blockchain and how it works 1.1.1 History, definition and types of Blockchain 1.1.2 Development of Blockchain recently 13 1.2 Fundamental of Smart contracts 16 1.2.1 Definition, characteristics and mechanisms of Smart contract 16 1.2.2 Benefit and potential application of Smart contract in realistic 23 1.2.3 Overview about challenges of Smart contracts 32 1.3 Detailed challenges 33 CHAPTER 2: SITUATIONS OF SMART CONTRACTS WITHIN CURRENT FRAMEWORKS 36 2.1 Overview framework and policy of Smart contract in some countries .36 2.1.1 Current legal frameworks in some countries 39 2.1.2 Evaluation 48 2.2 Problematic aspects that arise with Smart contracts 49 2.2.1 Technically difficulty posed by smart contract development 49 2.2.2 Smart contracts and contract law 50 CHAPTER 3: RECOMMENDATION FOR VIETNAM 64 3.1 Actual situation of Blockchain application in Vietnam 64 3.2 Contracts and Smart contracts regulation in Vietnam 67 3.3 Lessons from framework and policy of Smart contracts for Vietnam 71 3.3.1 Principles for the Blockchain Act 73 3.3.2 Issues relate to the law and blockchain 84 3.3.2 Issues relate to smart legal contracts 86 CONCLUSION 89 LIST OF REFERENCES 91 iv No LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Abbreviation Description IoT Internet of Things P2P Peer to Peer TCP Transmission Control Protocol PoW Proof of Work DLT Distributed ledger technology PGP Pretty Good Privacy ICO Initial Coin Offering ID Identification DAO Decentralized organizations 10 dApp Decentralized applications 11 GDPR General Data Protection Regulation v LIST OF TABLE Table 1.1: Public Permissionless and Private permitted Blockchain Table 1.2: Traditional and smart contracts 23 Chart 1.1: How smart contracts work 19 vi SUMMARY OF THESIS RESEARCH RESULTS The birth of "smart contracts" have based on developments in the emerging field of Blockchain application: computerized transaction protocols which autonomously execute the terms of a contract With a lot of advantages which I will analyze below, Smart contracts are really offering the promise of increased commercial efficiency, lower transaction and legal costs, and anonymous transacting However, beside of benefits they bring into, there are equally significant concerns that smart contracts will encounter considerable difficulty adapting to current legal frameworks regulating contracts across jurisdictions This thesis hopes considers the potential issues, loopholes within legal and practical enforceability that arise from the use of smart contracts and gives recommendation for Vietnam INTRODUCTION Importance of the study Blockchain application has been popular, adopted and growing rapidly both in academia and industry This growth is driven by the unique features of Blockchains: providing reliability, integrity, and auditability in a decentralized system Thanks to advantages of Blockchain techonology, such as possible event-driven, self-executing code statements, smart contracts were born These contracts autonomously execute prespecified tasks, such as settling a contract, by examining changing environmental conditions in conjunction with the contract‘s embedded rules Smart contracts are envisioned to have a range of innovative applications, such as privacy preserving transactive energy systems, asset tracking in the IoT, and various financial applications Unfortunately, due to the peculiarities of smart contract platforms and languages, the development of smart contracts has proven to be a challenging and error-prone process These errors often manifest as security vulnerabilities, which have led to multiple notable security incidents, with losses in therange of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrencies Specially, framework and policy about smart contracts in countries is uncompleted Although this is not a priori bad nor cause for concern cause technology has always driven societal change, and the law has a long history and plenty of experience adapting to such change, at the same time, history shows us that technology must also be open to adapt to existing law where the law reflects the values and consensus of society, weakness of them will bring some disadvantages to many people using In this study, I investigated Blockchain technology and smart contracts, particularly the legal implications of smart contracts I would like to enhance the understanding of smart contracts by providing an overview of legal issues to smart contracts and some points of my view to recommendations to Vietnam for the 4.0 technology period 78 users, or once it is coded and added to the Blockchain The answer may lie in a broad interpretation of the legal rules discussed above However, it is obvious that these rules not cleanly embrace the concept of smart contracts Remedial Issues A contract can be breached when the debtor incurs in delay, fails to perform the service or executes it defectively What would be more plausible is an improper compliance or unjust enrichment However, breach can still happen, though smart contracts are created specially to avoid it, when a code cannot execute due to a missing input: for example, the executed code is meant to transfer an amount of cryptocurrencies but it is not deposited on a special account Also, the smart contract can be null when it produces an illegal outcome, like selling drugs or allowing a minor to buy alcohol To mitigate these problems some actions can be taken: • Not only use smart contracts, but also a written contract that has influence over the first one and, thus, minimize the discrepancies • Write computer codes in a precise way, including variables that can adjust with the law and its changes Parties are more likely going to set the terms according to the current law and terms that can be accommodated to future changes • Breach is a serious matter in Contract Law and how it will take place and outcomes are complicated to entirely predict Then, it is worth to encourage legislators and jurists to intervene in clarifying the consequences ex-ante They can be interested in the enforcement of smart contracts because the intent of the parties is explicitly contained, and courts will have more certainty about it For instance, specific matters in smart contracts can be expressly forbidden (such as drugs), demand permission and certain requirements to formalize a smart contract (when selling products of considerable value to not defraud tax 35 payment, block the deposited amount in a special account, etc.), implement a recognition system that detects the violation of laws (like when the interest of a loan become usury) or demands identification to prove legitimacy to contract (like not being a minor buying alcohol) 79 • Also, ex-post remedies can be a solution when regulation ex ante is not enough, demand compensation for the caused damages Whether ex-ante or ex-post, through regulation or legal action, there not seem to be many differences to the ones applied in conventional contracts What can be said is that in smart contract parties cannot rely on not knowing the terms defined and inserted, because the precision of these will determine the foreseeable outcome By virtue of their nature, smart contracts are also susceptible to a number of problems, each of which give rise to certain remedial issues Smart contracts are essentially computer programs fashioned as conduits for commercial transactions They are coded to execute specific instructions using immutable programming language Once on the Blockchain, smart contracts proceed in enforcing themselves Whilst certain parameters may be amendable, smart contracts operating within a Blockchain network fundamentally not – perhaps cannot – change Computer code is designed to be finite; once on the Blockchain, it can be extremely difficult and potentially impossible to access and amend a smart contract‘s coding On the one hand, this might be seen as a positive because human error in execution is eliminated given that data in a Blockchain ‗is guaranteed to be valid according to certain predefined rules of the system On the other hand, smart contracts present the risk of errors which may not be reversible or which require extensive efforts to correct Smart contracts therefore give rise to a number of significant remedial issues These contracts are relatively impervious being designed to be ‗permanent‘ in nature and to integrate smoothly into what is likely to be a voluminous ledger of transactions on the Blockchain As mentioned earlier, errors requiring correction may not be reversible, or at the least would likely require extensive efforts to correct Whereas error correction with traditional non-digital contracts is relatively straightforward, the same cannot be said of smart contracts This may present something of a logistical nightmare for courts trying to apply traditional contract law principle to rectify errors with a smart contract It can be seen that enforcing a 80 judicial order which affects contractual relations may well be far more complex in the case of smart contracts Interpreting Content It is the natural role of the courts to resolve legal disputes between citizens and/or the state Given that contracts are in the domain of private law, when contractual disputes arise it is for the courts to determine the rights and obligations of each party This inherently involves reference to the terms of the contract In the case of a smart contract, however, the terms are encapsulated in computer code that will almost certainly be completely unintelligible to the average lawyer or judge Reference to the terms in legible linguistic form (in extrinsic materials such as original terms of reference or heads of agreement, negotiation notes, emails etc.) would also seemingly be barred by the parol evidence rule, which prohibits reference to such materials where the express terms have been reduced to a final written agreement An exception here might be that the terms of the smart contract are entirely ambiguous and incomprehensible without reference to such extrinsic materials, in which case the courts may permit resort to them Expert evidence may also be required, such as qualified programmers equipped to decipher the smart contract code In any event, the process of construction is very likely to be slowed as a consequence of the need to consider both the contract terms as coded into the smart contract (program) and the original, natural contract terms as drafted by the parties and/or their lawyers Smart contracts present other difficulties relating to the expression of their content Another problem would arise where the contract contained a mechanism for variation, which is a common feature in many commercial agreements It may also be difficult, perhaps near impossible, to reduce particular scenarios articulated in contract terms to computer code These clauses could not readily be enforced owing to the immutable nature of the Blockchain, and the need for professionals versed in programming (which would likely exclude the parties and their lawyer(s)) to the work 81 Communicate legal interpretations as broadly as possible When blockchain is added into a law, or when a binding or highly certain interpretation of the law with regards to blockchain is reached, we think it is worthwhile for authorities to make an extra effort to communicate this to the wider community by continuing such efforts in future, through various channels Choose the right regulatory approaches for the question at hand When it comes to regulating new technologies like blockchain, regulators can choose from three basic approaches, each of which has its own advantages and disadvantages They can for instance apply existing laws and regulations as they stand now to the new case This has the advantage of simplicity, but in squeezing a new phenomenon into old requirements, regulators could run the risk of negating or watering down those aspects of blockchain that are truly innovative A second approach is to amend existing laws to take into account what makes the new case special This can be a pragmatic way forward, though it runs the risk of creating new loopholes, perhaps with unintended consequences Finally, regulators can craft completely new, ad-hoc rules and regulations for specific use cases While flexible and innovation friendly, considering the speed of innovation and the rapid appearance of new use cases, regulators may find it difficult to keep up, or may find they are creating a confusing jungle of bespoke, even potentially conflicting, new rules Our point is that there is no right answer, but rather that clarity on the different ways to approach blockchain regulation can be a good tool in helping policy makers strike the necessary balance between protection and innovation that they strive for Harmonise the law and interpretations of it Whatever approach individual regulators take, we think it crucial that blockchain and smart contract regulation be as harmonised as possible That means sharing definitions – and where possible sharing regulations themselves – as well as to the extent possible sharing common interpretations Blockchain technology and its attendant use cases are international by nature 82 Help policy makers develop an understanding of the technology Getting it right will require the respective authorities and the full ecosystem to understand this new technology and what can (and cannot) be achieved with it I think education of policy makers is particularly important, and worth the extra effort Education, training, hands-on experience and exposure to the technology and the ecosystem are the best way to provide regulators the tools they need to make the best decisions As a first step, lawmakers should determine whether, under existing laws, software that automatically executes an agreement (if certain conditions are met) is deemed to act merely as a messenger of the relevant contracting parties, or whether it might be characterised as a contracting party itself (or as its representative or agent) If existing laws not provide a clear answer, lawmakers may wish to consider amending applicable laws to clarify that software acts merely as a messenger or medium of communication in this context Lawmakers should also assess whether existing laws allow for contracting parties to issue conditional offers and acceptances, including via automated software (as would often be the case where parties enter into smart contracts under the Concluding Model) If not, lawmakers may wish to consider amending existing laws to facilitate the use of smart contracts under the Concluding Model, for example to recognise the actions of the parties in coding software to automatically conclude a contract where relevant conditions are met, as the issue of a conditional offer or acceptance Finally, lawmakers should identify whether there are any situations in which the law requires notices (or other communications relating to contracts) to be issued by a legal or natural person If this is the case, lawmakers should consider whether it would be appropriate to amend existing laws to allow such notices or communications to be delivered via software, in the context of a smart contract A wait-and-see approach on less mature use cases and encourage self-regulation: 83 As regulators know all too well, intervening too early in novel use cases can be counterproductive In less mature blockchain use cases, for example, questions around decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), the report suggested that the EU would profit from a wait-and-see approach and only keeping a close eye on developments while the use cases mature Closely monitor developments in less mature use cases and encourage selfregulation As regulators know all too well, intervening too early in novel use cases can be counterproductive In less mature blockchain use cases That said, when it comes to new use cases regulators can always support efforts by the industry to self-regulate This is often an effective and prudent approach in the early stages of a new technology, considering the relatively small size of these areas Make use of blockchain as a regulatory tool Last but not least, I think an excellent way for regulators to help monitor and regulate the industry is to get involved themselves This not only has benefits in terms of education and, as we wrote above, as an indirect method of regulation through helping to shape the new ecosystem Blockchain also offers potentially powerful new regulatory tools For example, regulators could plug themselves into new blockchainbased platforms as they come online, unleashing new opportunities to improve the efficacy but also efficiency of their operations - including potentially with realtime regulatory monitoring and intervention capabilities By ―getting their hands dirty‖ now with the technology, regulators will be well placed to take advantage of the opportunities it offers them as these opportunities arise In summary, as blockchain technology becomes more widely used in support of new types of decentralised applications and platforms, lawmakers and regulators will increasingly find themselves faced with challenging questions These challenges are healthy and to be welcomed as part of the natural processes of change in society The law has great experience in successfully adapting to this kind of change, if often at its own pace With a few general thoughts and 84 recommendations for Vietnam policy makers might go about this adaptation over the short to mid-term, I believe that the time smart contracts will approach into the life much more 3.3.2 Issues relate to the law and blockchain Ideally, we believe that if blockchain-enabled markets are to mature, policymakers and businesses must create the rules of engagement together Regulators should provide guiding principles to attract private-sector investors, ensure consumer protection and citizens‘ rights, and provide safeguards against anti-competitive practices Now, we will have a deeper understanding of five topics that should be considered while including the law with blockchain technology I excluded the discussion of the sixth topic, ―risk to fair competition,‖ to avoid confusion The reason given is that a blockchain network (a decentralization and transparency platform) should lead to the enhancement of efficiencies and could lower boundaries for new competitors to enter old markets Legal value of blockchain as registries: To legalize a transaction, it requires legal recognition of blockchain-based signatures (who did the transaction), timestamps (when it was carried out), validations (who validated the transactions) and ―documents‖ (that is, the data associated with a transaction or contract) In Europe, such issues are handled under the eIDAS (electronic IDentification, Authentication and Trust Services regulation) The situation is more complicated when it comes to eSignatures and eSeals (signatures of a legal entity as opposed to a natural person) eIDAS recognizes three different levels of eSignatures: (1) simple, (2) advanced, and (3) qualified Blockchains would appear to meet the technical criteria for (1) simple and (2) advanced However, to be legally binding, blockchain needs to meet the highest standard (i.e., (3) qualified) that requires using the services of a recognized Trust Service Provider (TSP) or undergoing the arduous process of becoming a recognized TSP yourself For this reason, from an eIDAS perspective, blockchain transactions not have legal authority by themselves 85 Territoriality: The nature of blockchains may render it difficult to determine in what country damage occurs as a result of conduct on blockchains For this reason, we might need to revisit aspects of European private international law To achieve certainty as to the precise nature and scope of legal relationships on blockchains, a potential approach could be to develop existing legal tools further This makes cross-jurisdictional harmonization important That, in turn, requires regulators and lawmakers to collaborate across national borders to harmonize legal and regulatory regimes, while managing potential risks, including issues of monopolies and market manipulation Addressing these would require significant legal and organizational changes and a mechanism for collaboration to ensure alignment Enforceability: Again, the primary concern of blockchain is always surrounding anonymity However, the report provided a clear explanation that blockchain could be anonymous in real-time during the transaction, but it is not entirely non-detectable It is not an issue for enterprise blockchain solutions (i.e., permissioned blockchain) because it is mainly designed for identifiable and accountable actors to engage in the network As for permissionless blockchain, it is not true that users who violate the law on a blockchain are not identifiable or traceable This is because the entries in the ledgers are immutable, providing an audit trail and evidence of wrongdoing While not always identifiable real-time of the transaction, given enough time and effort, many parties to a transaction can be unmasked Therefore, at this point, there is no question of total impunity for blockchain actors It is important to note that the most popular platforms not support anonymity completely: Bitcoin and Ethereum Importantly, consumers typically purchase and trade their cryptocurrency on the crypto exchanges (e.g., Coinbase and Binance), where such crypto intermediaries require users to provide real identity during the registration process to adhere to AML and other regulations In this sense, the intermediaries can be handy regulatory access points, as with any regulatory intervention 86 Liability Two aspects of liability should be addressed: (1) liability of core software developers and (2) liability of network participants generally Based on the report, it suggested that it does not seem appropriate to charge core software developers with responsibility for any unlawful use of an open-source program merely because they are the creators of the tool Blockchain open-source software, similar to all other products, can be used to achieve good and evil goals It is important to note that imposing extended responsibilities on core software developers may drive some of them to escape into anonymity or discourage them from trying to innovate Although it is possible to identify the actors in the permissionless blockchain network, this does require time and effort and is therefore not always practical This can, in turn, be an obstacle in enforcing liability (compensation) on actors in blockchain-based networks generally As such, by creating an insurance system in the permissionless blockchain network (as a party to liable to injured party) would make the whole system more expensive during the audit trail process Data protection Apart from anonymity concern, as explained before, other considerations are worth to examine For instance, the data provider‘s right to control the data on the blockchain network can be problematic, including rights to the rectification of personal data, to know if one‘s data is being processed and—an issue with smart contracts—the right to be protected from decisions made only on the basis of automated data processing Inspire of these challenges, the findings of the report remain a positive view on solving these thorny issues in the near future 3.3.2 Issues relate to smart legal contracts According to the report, a smart contract could represent a digital asset (i.e., payment, investment, and utility tokens) or an organization (i.e., DAOs), and act as an autonomous agent (e.g., a smart contract with AI features) However, when it comes to the legality of smart contracts, here are some of the issues that arise: 87 Formal requirements Perhaps in a given jurisdiction, a contract needs to be on paper or be notarized, or maybe not As an example, Swedish law normally accepts oral agreements as valid, but only paper contracts when it comes to real estate At the same time, unlike other countries, Swedish law does not require the use of notaries Similarly, there may be requirements that a contract is in a language that both parties can understand (although English is universally accepted, we cannot assume that all non-English speakers can understand English perfectly) Can computer code be considered such a language? And if so, would we then require ―translations‖ of this language into others, like ordinary human language, and thereby also need rules for what constitutes a legally binding translation of a smart contract to say Finnish, German, French or Italian? Signing requirements Another question affecting whether a smart contract is legally binding has to with who ―signed‖ it, and how this signature has been carried out To be legally valid in Europe under the eIDAS, digital signatures on a blockchain must be verified by a trusted service provider An automated smart legal contract requiring such digital signatures will need to be able to ascertain if the signature is valid, if it refers to the correct person and, if so, if that person has the authority to sign In commercial settings, this could mean being able to access company databases or some other reliable oracle These, in turn, would need some legal standing Immutability of smart contracts The more ―automated‖ a smart contract is, the trickier the legal issues can become The advantage is that they will execute as written no matter what— holding, in theory, the parties to their commitments through the inexorable might of code Yet in such cases, what happens from a legal perspective if off-chain conditions change? There might be changes in the law, applicable regulations, in the business environment, or other relevant spheres that would necessitate a change in the smart contract What legal recourse would the parties have if the smart contract 88 they have deployed cannot be accessed and modified? If appropriate functionality is not included in the code to allow for the adoption of the changes in the legal contract, the smart contract could perform non-valid legal actions Smart contract audits/quality assurance A smart contract might execute as written and yet still behave in ways not foreseen by its writers For this reason, smart contract ―audits‖—often complex, highly technical processes to check for the validity and viability of smart contract code become important That raises the question of whether such audits have to become requirements, or also need legal recognition of some kind to make a smart contract valid? This has yet to be decided Legal status, effect and enforceability of smart contracts generally The act of transacting, even if devoid of requiring any element of trust, must result in an enforceable change over rights attaching to or deriving from the asset concerned, whether this is a token or is represented by a token For the assets transacted on blockchains to exist in the real world, they should be vested with rights in rem In conclusion, the advancement of the current blockchain technology becomes more widely used in support of new types of decentralized applications and platforms, lawmakers and regulators should increasingly find themselves faced with challenging questions However, these challenges are healthy and will be welcomed as part of the natural processes of change in society for the betterment 89 CONCLUSION A smart contract, as for what has been argued, complies with the essential elements - consent, object and cause- and form Vietnam Law requires and, therefore, fits under the principals of Contract Law Nevertheless, it is still a new technology and we have a lot to learn That is why it is worth encouraging public authorities and jurists to embrace and adapt to the changes and needs of the blockchain technology and smart contracts, taking into account its particularities, which are not few, in the stages of formation and perfection, performance and breach Most solutions come in comparison to traditional contracts, but it is not always possible due to the nature of smart contracts Yet any type of contract is an agreement that can be enforced, there are differences regarding the type of contract In a conventional contract, when breached, the aggrieved party takes legal action going to court to demand restitution, a specific performance or pay for caused damages; But when it comes to smart contracts, due to its conditional and selfenforceability nature, the contract would have already been executed or in the process of execution, so the aggrieved party will have to go to court after an improper compliance or unjust enrichment Nevertheless, the breach is a possibility when a code cannot correctly execute due to a missing input, yet smart contracts pretend to avoid these problems For legal security, it is important that legislators and jurists intervene clarifying the consequences ex-ante In the fact that a large part of the population uses these technologies in this type of transactions, such as the use of smart contracts, many legislations not yet stipulate a legal framework that regulates commercial matters carried out in this means that allow legal certainty by assuming that those with whom it is treated will respect their commitments as in conventional agreements Although no doubt that this type of instruments have multiple advantages such as cost reduction, the elimination of intermediaries and the protection of data by being in an encrypted code, we cannot ignore that being a legitimate tool, necessarily in its creation, as throughout its validity and at the end of it must have legal supervision that allows 90 users to have full certainty that the agreed agreement will have compliance and otherwise must trust that there will be mechanisms to restore arbitrariness As one of the products of Industry 4.0, Blockchain in general and smart contracts in particular is one big step of digital technology in transactions With many advantages, smart contracts can make the world become a better place without profit commissions It is true that blockchain and smart contracts pretend to change the way we use contracts Now, many companies and governments are working on these technologies due to all the benefits it provides, like lowering costs, being more secure, faster and, of course, with certainty However, the main downsides to consider is related to the early stage of development and, in particular, if they can work with the existing laws or need an additional regulation For now, the applications will not grab the attention of individuals and be focused on specific business areas, such as banking and insurance We not believe smart contracts will replace conventional contracts It is an alternative in specific areas that provides considerable advantages It can contribute to reducing fraud, delays and overall cost of things So, many experts predict smart contracts will become an important role in the future for most of the business and management sectors However, nothing is perfect, Smart contracts still have limitations, especially when the current laws not have enough time and data to control its limitations On the other hand, with Vietnams‘ abundant human resources, Smart Contracts also makes a lot of people lose their jobs By looking specifically, I hope we can find a right path for this technology in the Vietnamese environment 91 LIST OF REFERENCES (1) Riccardo de Caria, A Digital Revolution in International Trade, The International Legal Framework for Blockchain Technologies, Virtual Currencies and Smart Contracts: Challenges and Opportunity (2) Aaron Wright & Primavera De Filippi Decentralized, Blockchain Technology and The Rise of Lex Cryptographia (3) E Allan Farnsworth, ‗Comparative Contract Law‘ in Mathias Reimann and Reinhard Zimmermann (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Law (OUP 2016) 901; Arthur von Mehren, ‗A General View on Contract‘, International Encyclopedia of Comparative Law: Contract in General, vol VII/1 (Mohr Siebeck 2008) 19ff.; Caroline Bradley, ‗Private International Law-Making for the Financial Markets‘ (2005) 29 Fordham Int'l L.J 127, 158f A Tapscott and D Tapscott, ―How blockchain is changing finance,‖ (4) Harvard Business Review, vol 1, no 9, 2017 A Tapscott and D Tapscott, ―How blockchain is changing finance,‖ (5) Harvard Business Review, vol 1, no 9, 2017 (6) Nakamoto, S., Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, (2008), available at: https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf (7) Ametrano, F M., Hayek Money: The Cryptocurrency Price Stability Solution, (August 13, 2016) Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2425270 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2425270 (8) Digital Transformation in Government and Blockchain Technology, speech delivered by Minister for Cabinet Office Matt Hancock at D Digital Catapult, Kings Cross, London on the 26th April 2016 Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/digital-transformationingovernment-and-blockchain-technology (9) Perugini, M L & Dal Checco, P., Smart Contracts: A Preliminary Evaluation, December 2015 Available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2729548 92 (10) Szabo, N., Smart Contracts, 1994, unpublished Szabo, N., The Idea of Smart Contracts, 1997 Available at: http://szabo.best.vwh.net/idea.html (11) Richard R Orsinger, The Rise of Modern American Contract Law (2015) www.orsinger.com/PDFFiles/the-Rise-of-American-Contract-Law.pdf (12) Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum White Paper (2014), http://blockchainlab.com/pdf accessed 22 January 2019; for a more detailed explanation of blockchain technology, see, e.g., Primavera De Filippi and Aaron Wright, Blockchain and the Law (HUP 2018) (13) Martin Fries, Smart Contracts: Brauchen schlaue Verträge noch Anwälte (2018) (14) Cardozo Blockchain Project, Research Report #2: „Smart Contracts‖ & Legal Enforceability‘ (2018) https://cardozo.yu.edu/sites/default/ (15) Christiane Wendehorst, Consumer Contracts and the Internet of Things in Reiner Schulze and Dirk Staudenmayer (eds), Digital Revolution: Challenges for Contract Law in Practice (Nomos 2016) (16) Stéphane Blemus, Law and Blockchain: A Legal Perspective on Current Regulatory Trends Worldwide, (2017) (17) Under German law, the enforcement of such an act is governed by § 888 code of civil procedure (ZPO) which is regulating actions that may not be taken by others, cf Merih E Kütük and Christoph Sorge, Bitcoin im deutschen Vollstreckungsrecht (2014) (18) The Law on Electronic transaction No 51/2005/QH11 dated November 29, 2005; (19) The Civil Code Law No 91/2015/QH13, The Civil Code Law No 91/2015/QH13; (20) The Law on Postal services No 49/2010/QH12 dated June 17, 2010; ... of understanding about Blockchain and Smart contracts; the current law in some countries about smart contracts and form that voice challenges and loopholes of law regulated Smart contracts; recommendations...MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY MASTER THESIS SMART CONTRACT – ACHIEVEMENT OF BLOCKCHAIN APPLICATION, LOOPHOLES AND RECOMMENDATION FOR VIETNAM Major: International... into software, are predestined for smart contracts A noteworthy example is the distribution of music via Blockchain- based smart contracts Recognizing of importance of Blockchain and smart contracts,