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Re:$34M permanently locked into AkuDreams contract forever d... by remram on Saturday April 23, 2022 @10:19AM (#31134481)
I never got why we call those things "smart". It just seems like a dumber, more pedantic kind of contract.

The kind that can take into account intent via the courthouse mechanism is smarter.

Re:$34M permanently locked into AkuDreams contract forever d... by alpaca128 on Saturday April 23, 2022 @11:02AM (#31134826)
I actually like this kind of naming nowadays, it tells you right away how trustworthy it is. Smart is becoming the Karen of the tech industry.
Re:$34M permanently locked into AkuDreams contract forever d... by egeozcan on Saturday April 23, 2022 @11:30AM (#31135096)
As a person who never lived in an English-speaking country, associating Karen (or any name really) with such a bad personality has always made my "be nice" alarm bells ring.

Truly sorry for the digression, just wanted to know what others think, and not blaming you or anything. Spoken languages are weird, even weirder than cryptocurrency contracts with accidental bad logic - the weird logic in spoken languages seems somehow desired.

Re:$34M permanently locked into AkuDreams contract forever d... by alpaca128 on Saturday April 23, 2022 @04:35PM (#31138249)
I don't live in an English country either and we have our own equivalent male and female names. This is basically a common stereotype being so universally seen as negative that it becomes an insult. Not great because some people actually have that name (and most of them don't deserve this association), but then again a person's annoying behaviour isn't the worst reason for negative labels.

Like always you can insult and hurt people with "clean" language and use vulgar words in non-offensive ways. But say what you want, I'll keep calling "smart" technology trash ;)

Re:$34M permanently locked into AkuDreams contract forever d... by antifa on Saturday April 23, 2022 @09:57PM (#31140579)
"Smart" these days often feels like it really means "smart enough to subvert the user's interests".
Re:$34M permanently locked into AkuDreams contract forever d... by DangitBobby on Saturday April 23, 2022 @12:18PM (#31135620)
You are right, of course. Imagine how shitty is must be to be named Karen and have millions of people one day start using your name as an insult. Just one of the hundreds of ways the internet mob steamrolls over people.
Re:$34M permanently locked into AkuDreams contract forever d... by ineedasername on Saturday April 23, 2022 @02:43PM (#31137091)
>hundreds of ways the internet mob steamrolls over people.

There's lots of names that have acquired negative stereotypes before. In my lifetime the name "Mike" at one point basically meant asshole (not so much anymore) and "Bob" basically meant boring, and "Patel" was a catchall negative for anyone from India.

There's even research on some of the nuances of the phenomenon. [1]

This isn't an aspect of internet mobs, it's an aspect of human nature, or at least society in general.

The Internet may shine a light on our flaws, and provide some new outlets for them, but it doesn't really create new ones, we brought them with us, like settlers from Europe going to the "New World" to escape the plague only to find they brought it with them.

[1] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00224545.1996.97...

Re:$34M permanently locked into AkuDreams contract forever d... by theshrike79 on Saturday April 23, 2022 @12:54PM (#31135956)
It wasn't fun being an Adolf in the beginning of the previous century =)

These things tend to happen.

Re:$34M permanently locked into AkuDreams contract forever d... by nlitened on Saturday April 23, 2022 @02:00PM (#31136603)
That had happened to Dicks before though.
Re:$34M permanently locked into AkuDreams contract forever d... by wpietri on Saturday April 23, 2022 @12:24PM (#31135672)
People are able to distinguish between "Karen" and "a Karen". It's no more of a problem than my dad had with people distinguishing between his name "Bill" and "a bill".
Re:$34M permanently locked into AkuDreams contract forever d... by Claude_Shannon on Saturday April 23, 2022 @01:29PM (#31136279)
Unrelated, but I live in Poland and there's similar thing related to names. Stereotypical Janusz and Grażyna are boomers, Karyna means a poor woman that's not exactly educated, and so on. It is not only American phenomenon.
Re:$34M permanently locked into AkuDreams contract forever d... by Jach on Saturday April 23, 2022 @12:20PM (#31135632)
It's just some lingo, dog. (Not actually calling you a dog.)
Re:$34M permanently locked into AkuDreams contract forever d... by floren on Saturday April 23, 2022 @12:47PM (#31135904)
"Smart" is to contracts as "Democratic" is to country names
Re:$34M permanently locked into AkuDreams contract forever d... by 8bitben on Saturday April 23, 2022 @10:21AM (#31134500)
Turns out unfettered immutability isn't the holy grail it was made out to be
Re:$34M permanently locked into AkuDreams contract forever d... by wpietri on Saturday April 23, 2022 @12:26PM (#31135690)
Depends on the audience. This sort of immutability is still deeply loved by the blockchain idealists and the criminals. And more casually by all the people who love them some victim-blaming.
Re:$34M permanently locked into AkuDreams contract forever d... by denton-scratch on Saturday April 23, 2022 @01:08PM (#31136091)
Really? I would have thought that a "bulletproof" contract is better than a vague one, precisely because the latter is more likely to be litigated. What's the value of having a contract, if you have to go to court to find out what it means?

Of course, I don't want a bulletproof contract imposed on me. It's better if "our standard contractual terms" are vague, so that I can sue suppliers. But if it's a private, custom contract, then I really need to know beyond doubt what it means.

My problem with blockchain "contracts" is that they don't seem to be able to affect (or be affected by) the real world - fiat bank accounts, delivery of goods in working order, etc. They only seem to affect digital pictures of monkeys. I suppose that simply means I don't "get it".

Re:$34M permanently locked into AkuDreams contract forever d... by otterley on Saturday April 23, 2022 @01:37PM (#31136363)
> What's the value of having a contract, if you have to go to court to find out what it means?

The vast majority of business is performed under implicit or explicit contracts without any disputes whatsoever. We’re talking billions of interactions per day.

Courts are there for the rare occasion when a dispute occurs. There are many kinds of disputes, but one occurs when there is a complex agreement that was drafted either vaguely or incorrectly. This happens because human beings are imperfect; unforeseeable events occur; and because the language in which the contract was drafted might be vague or capable of multiple interpretations. Court hearings give the litigants the opportunity to provide evidence and context so that a judge can decide the fairest outcome.

So we don’t need courts to do business, but they exist because we need some peaceful way of resolving disputes. The alternative is violence.

Re:$34M permanently locked into AkuDreams contract forever d... by hef19898 on Saturday April 23, 2022 @03:13PM (#31137420)
In professional live, when you are talking contractual provisions, after signsture, and during disputes the relationship is already ruined in most cases. And those conflicts are hardly ever litigated.
Re:$34M permanently locked into AkuDreams contract forever d... by denton-scratch on Saturday April 23, 2022 @06:13PM (#31139148)
Nearly all major commercial contracts have an arbitration clause, so it's true that those conflicts are rarely litigated. "Disputes" are expected, but they go to arbitration. That doesn't at all mean that any relationships are ruined.

There is a whole industry of arbitrators for hire. They are usually specialised in some field of business, so they don't need bringing up to speed. And they're all experienced lawyers. The work is nearly all paperwork - submissions, affidavits, disclosures. There is rarely a face-to-face hearing. It's more like doing accounts-receivable than sueing someone's ass.

"Just business", as some mobster might have said.

Re:$34M permanently locked into AkuDreams contract forever d... by lr4444lr on Saturday April 23, 2022 @11:08AM (#31134894)
Well, non-repudiation is not the same thing as non-reversibility. The former is part of a Smart Contract. Unfortunately, most (all?) cryptocurrencies make you take the latter too.