A Trading Model Based on Legal Contracts Using Smart Contract Templates

Smart contracts are often used to automate the execution of transactions so that the fairness, credibility and traceability can be ensured. Generally, for different trading events, different smart contracts are needed to be developed so as to meet the needs. This may lead to a reduction in efficiency, especially when large-scale transactions occur. In addition, trading contracts have complex life cycle and terms. Developing a smart contract based on the context of a contract is extremely difficult. These characteristics may do harm to the application of smart contracts in e-commerce. To this end, this paper proposes a trading model based on legal contracts using smart contract templates. The model can dynamically construct, store, and invoke smart contracts based on a smart contract template and the context of a trading contract, thereby improving the reusability of smart contracts and reducing the difficulty for use. Third-party information, like logistics information, is used as the triggering condition of smart contracts to enhance the reasonableness of execution. In this paper, the garment acquisition contract is token as an example to describe the construction method of a smart contract template. Finally, combined with the experiment and the life cycle of a legal contract, the validity and rationality of the model is discussed. The comparison with legal trading contracts in performance is also conducted.