What if the US Constitution was written as a Smart Contract?
DLT Related
US constitution Article 1, Section 8:
The Congress shall have Power... To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
Article 1, Section 10:
No State shall... coin Money;... make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts;
Definition of coin (cambridge):
a small, round piece of metal, usually silver or copper coloured, that is used as money.
I interpret this as following: The Federal Government (Congress) have the power to coin money. Traditionally this term was used to describe the process of making coins out of metals, Thereof “fix the Standard of Weights and Measures”
It doesn’t say what type of metal congress can use, but since the states can only accept gold or silver coins as payments, it makes no sense to coin anything other than that.
In 1863, Congress made bank notes backed by gold (called greenbacks) legal tender but the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional, presumably because bank notes cannot be coined. In 1871, The Supreme Court changed its mind on the matter and declared greenbacks legal tender. I can only assume that the definition of “coining money” got changed to include paper. Although I’m pretty sure that wasn’t the intention of the founding fathers.
Source: https://www.historycentral.com/Civics/CONGRESS/coining.html
I can understand the inconvenience of carrying around gold everywhere, especially in today’s society where we do transactions over the Internet. That clause had to be updated at some point, but it haven’t been changed, so technically anything but silver or gold coins are unconstitutional. At least if you follow the definition of coining money that was present at the time of writing the constitution.
Even worse, today’s fiat currency is not backed by either gold, silver or anything. If we assume that coining money have expanded to include paper and digital ones and zeroes, the Congress may still have the power to do it. But it’s clearly unconstitutional for the states to accept anything that is not backed by gold or silver.
The Federal Government is not even the one “coining” the money. It is a private company with special privileges called The Federal Reserve, which is neither federal or has any reserves. How is it possible that the FED and other private banks can “coin” their own money, but if we do it, we go to jail?
If we break the laws, we are supposed to be trialed and punished. If you counterfeit money, they lock you up and throw away the key. But how can these people responsible for this crime have gone free for so long? Is this the crime of the century that Supertramp is singing about?
Smart Contracts as law
I imagine that many countries have law-books that are thicker than bricks, with texts that can span the globe. And the more tyrannic the government becomes, the more laws it creates. There are probably many, many laws that contradicts themselves. If law was written in code, this could not happen.
Central banker: “Hi computer. I want to make a new coin made of paper”
Computer: “Error. Paper does not match criteria of gold or silver”
Liberland is attempting to do exactly this and I’m very interested in it’s development.
As a nation-state whose entire governance and legislation is managed on chain, Liberland enables its citizens and E-Residents to start businesses under Liberland law and the juridistiction of Liberland courts—complete with insurance, enforcement of smart and traditional contracts, and the ability to participate in direct democracy from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. - Liberland.org