资源描述：
Smart Contract T echnology and Financial Inclusion FINANCE, COMPETITIVENESS International Finance Corporation IFC; and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency MIGA, which are separate and distinct legal entities each organized under its respective Articles of Agreement. We encourage use for educational and non-commercial purposes. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this volume do not necessarily reflect the views of the Directors or cutive Directors of the respective institutions of the World Bank Group or the governments they represent. The World Bank Group does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. Rights and Permissions The material in this publication is copyrighted. Copying and/or transmitting portions or all of this work without permission may be a violation of applicable law. The World Bank encourages dissemination of its work and will normally grant permission to reproduce portions of the work promptly. All queries on rights and licenses, including subsidiary rights, should be addressed to the Office of the Publisher, The World Bank Group, 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA; fax 202-522-2422; e-mail pubrightsworldbank.org. Photo Credits SWhat are the different characteristics of DL T I T able of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS I I Acknowledgments III Abbreviations and Acronyms V 1. Background and Purpose 1 2. Key T akeaways 3 3. What are Smart Contracts 5 3.1. Origins and Basics 5 3.2. Smart Contract Typologies 6 3.3. Blockchain-Based Smart Contracts 6 4. Smart Contract Advantages and Efficiencies 9 4.1. Smart Contracts Seek to Reduce Transaction Costs 9 4.2. Specific Gains for Firms and Consumers 10 4.3. Smart Contracts and Peer-to-Peer Transactions 11 5. Legal Aspects of Smart Contracts 13 5.1. Smart Contracts and Contract Law 13 5.2. Smart Contracts’ Likely Contractual Role 14 6. Policy Considerations for Responsible and Effective Smart Contract Deployment 17 6.1. Financial Consumer Protection 17 6.2. Customer Due Diligence 18 6.3. Foundational Legal Determinations 19 6.4. Standardization and Vetting 21 6.5. Data Source Automation 21 7. Potential Smart Contract Applications and Financial Inclusion Implications 23 7.1. Supply Chain Finance 23 7.2. Insurance 26 7.3. Consumer Credit 27SMART CONTRACT TECHNOLOGY AND FINANCIAL INCLUSION II Annex How Smart Contracts Would Change Existing Microfinance Products 31 A.1. Weather Index Insurance 32 A.2. Mobile Money-based, Short-term Unsecured Loan 35 Endnotes 37 LIST OF BOXES Box 1. Permissionless vs. Permissioned Smart Contract Plats 7 Box 2. Sofocle T echnologies 26 Box 3. B3i’s Property CAT XOL Contract 28 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Coding the Underlying Payout Logic in a Weather Index Insurance Policy 5 Figure 2. Four Basic Stages of a Blockchain-based Smart Contract 7 Figure 3. Contract Perance as a Function of the Cost of Breach 10 Figure 4. Smart Contracts and the Elements of Contract Enforceability 13 Figure 5. T ypical Claims Pre-cution vs. Post-cution Cases 20 Figure 6. The MSME Finance Gap Across Developing Regions Percent of GDP 24 Figure 7. How Could Blockchain-Based Smart Contracts Expand Access to SCF 25 Figure 8. The Flow of Items in a Supply-Chain Finance Transaction Facilitated by Blockchain, Smart Contracts, and the Internet of Things 25 Figure 9. The Basic Structure of a Weather Index Insurance Smart Contract 28 Figure 10. Smart Contracts’ Potential Role in Mortgage Servicing 29 LIST OF TABLES T able 1. Select Smart Contract T ypologies 6 T able 2. How Could Smart Contracts Unlock Value in Financial Services 10 T able 3. Contract Element Color Scheme 31III ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Acknowledgments This report is a product of the Financial Inclusion, Infrastructure and Access team in the World Bank Group’s Finance, Competitiveness and Innovation Global Practice. The team was led by Ivor Istuk and included Jeffrey Allen and Oya Ardic. The team is grateful for the substantive s provided by the peer reviewers Sharmista Appaya Senior Financial Sector Specialist, EFNFI, Baloko Makala Consultant, CEDTL - Thought Leadership, IFC, Harish Natarajan Lead Financial Sector Specialist, EFNFI, and Matthew Saal Principal Industry Specialist, CFGAD. The team benefitted from s and the overall guidance of Alfonso Garcia Mora and Mahesh Uttamchandani. This report would not be possible without the generous support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, provided through the World Bank Group’s Financial Inclusion Support Framework program.V ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS V V AI Artificial intelligence AML Anti-money laundering CDD Customer due diligence CFT Combatting the financing of terrorism DAO Decentralized autonomous organization DLT Distributed ledger technology DFS Digital financial services FCP Financial consumer protection FATF Financial Action Task Force IoT Internet of Things MSME Micro, small and medium enterprise P2P Peer-to-peer RBA Risk-based approach SCF Supply chain finance SDD Simplified due diligence V ASP Virtual asset service provider WBG World Bank Group WII Weather index insurance1 1. BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 1 1 FinTech Note No. 6 is part of a World Bank Group WBG series exploring the role of FinTech in economic development, with an emphasis on financial inclusion. In 2017, the WBG released FinTech Note No. 1, which investigates distributed ledger technology DLT and its possible development applications. This note picks up on a closely related innovation highlighted in FinTech Note No. 1, smart contract technology, which has received attention for its potential to facilitate a wide range of economic transactions. The note is geared toward local policymakers, who are analyzing FinTech developments for financial inclusion purposes, and WBG staff engaging with clients on financial inclusion projects. Opinions vary considerably regarding smart contracts’ projected role in the digital economy. While there are some feasible short-term smart contract use cases, smart contracts’ widespread deployment will only accompany extensive uptake of DLT and blockchain. In this sense, smart contract usage is largely conditional on blockchain adoption. If blockchain ushers in a wave of decentralization in the financial industry, smart contracts will be embedded in a wide range of financial transactions. Although blockchain optimism is strong, applications are incipient. In a 2019 survey of 1,386 senior cutives from twelve countries, one global consulting firm found that over 80 percent of respondents believe a compelling business case exists for blockchain and that it will achieve mainstream adoption. However, the share of respondents who have actually initiated blockchain deployments decreased from 34 percent in 2018 to 23 percent in 2019. Consistent with the conditional relationship between smart contracts and blockchain, 95 percent of respondents see smart contracts as a highly or moderately important blockchain capability. The purpose of this note is threefold. First, by bringing together in single resource key technological, economic, and legal aspects of smart contracts sections 3-5, the note serves as a high-level reference on the basic elements of smart contracts. It equips local policymakers and WBG staff with the requisite foundation to effectively brainstorm about smart contracts’ productive use in local economies. Second, the note discusses select policy considerations section 6 that local authorities, standard setting bodies, and international organizations will need to uate in order to ensure smart contracts’ responsible and effective deployment 1. BACKGROUND AND PURPOSESMART CONTRACT TECHNOLOGY AND FINANCIAL INCLUSION 2 in retail and micro, small, and medium enterprise MSME finance. The note focuses on financial consumer protection, customer due diligence, key legal determinations, standardization and vetting, and data source automation. Finally, the note analyzes smart contracts’ potential applications in retail and MSME finance section 7, focusing on supply chain finance, insurance, and consumer credit. It discusses the extent to which smart contracts could facilitate incremental financial inclusion gains and the changes they would introduce to these products. To this end, the Annex further examines the changes smart contracts could bring to two specific microfinance products, a weather index insurance policy and a mobile money-based, short- term unsecured loan. 3 2. KEY TAKEAWAYS 2. Key T akeaways 3 The table below outlines key takeaways from the analysis and maps them to relevant sections of the note. The takeaways are organized in two groups. The first group deals with smart contract applications and their financial inclusion implications. The second group catalogues select policy considerations for responsible and effective smart contract deployment. Smart Contract Applications and Financial Inclusion Implications Sections When paired with DLT, particularly blockchain, smart contracts potentially offer a transparent, automated, and efficient way to facilitate various contractual processes, especially monitoring the perance of agreements with less reliance on third parties. 3.3, 4, 7 Blockchain-based smart contracts could unlock value for firms and consumers through automation, self-cution, immutability, and distributed access and verification. 4, 7 Smart contracts are well-suited to capture certain operational contract clauses expressed in straightforward conditional logic but will struggle to express non-operational elements and those involving judgement or discretion. Smart contracts may also fundamentally alter or render unnecessary some common contractual elements. 5.2, Annex Where process frictions and operational, fraud, or legal risk contribute significantly to the cost of financial services and where trust is a barrier to uptake of financial services, smart contracts can drive incremental gains in financial inclusion. 7 Smart contracts will not alleviate a variety of common impediments to financial inclusion, including credit risk and income irregularity, distance and inaccessibility, limited awareness and financial literacy, and cultural factors. 7 Among the financial services investigated in this note, smart contracts are more likely to drive financial inclusion gains in supply chain finance and insurance than in consumer credit. 7, Annex Local financial and legal practitioners with a sound understanding of smart contracts and an intimate knowledge of bottlenecks in financial services contractual processes are likely best positioned to propose tailored smart contract applications relevant for economic development and financial inclusion. 7SMART CONTRACT TECHNOLOGY AND FINANCIAL INCLUSION 4 4 Policy Considerations for Responsible and Effective Smart Contract Deployment Sections Local lawmakers and legal authorities will need to determine whether smart contracts are legally binding. Smart contracts can reflect the foundational pillars of contract ation but may not comply with jurisdiction- and transaction-specific contract requirements. 5.1, 6.3 Smart contracts will not prevent fraud, illegality, or unconscionability in the ation process. 5.1, 6.1 Widespread adoption of smart contracts will not eliminate the need for dispute resolution but would give rise to more post-cution cases, in which the ultimate question is whether contract perance should be reversed. Lawmakers and legal authorities will need to uate what is optimal or desirable for their own jurisdictions on the burden of proof structure implied in post-cution cases. 5.1, 6.1, 6.3 Legal jurisdictions will need to determine whether computer code is admissible as evidence in court and whether measures need to be taken to convert computer code to natural language. 5.1, 6.3 Policymakers and providers will need to carefully consider how smart contracts will effectively accommodate critical financial consumer protection imperatives, particularly those associated with customer mobility, dispute resolution, unfair and deceptive acts or practices, and disclosure. Disclosure and transparency practices will need to adapt to smart contract characteristics. 6.1 Policymakers and providers will need to ensure that customer due diligence pered in connection with smart contracts meets Financial Action T ask Force FATF standards, particularly those dealing with Virtual Asset Service Providers and use of third parties to per customer due diligence. 6.2 Smart contracts that are integrated with digital identifications hosted on a blockchain could ease the implementation of a risk-based approach to customer due diligence. Policymakers should monitor forthcoming FATF guidance on use of digital identifications. 6.2 Standardization and vetting of smart contracts by relevant authorities and stakeholders could minimize risks and increase trust in smart contract applications in retail and MSME finance. Regulators should work with financial services providers to ensure standardized smart contracts meet a variety of minimum criteria prior to deployment. 6.1, 6.4 Policymakers will need to consider whether vetted and other types of smart contracts constitute “general terms and conditions” or another similar legal status, which may entail additional standards related to fairness and clarity. 6.4 Smart contract deployment in a diversity of financial products and services will require extensive connections with external data sources. Governments, standard setting bodies, and international organizations could play a role in facilitating the automation and interoperability of external data sources by identifying types of data widely used in smart contracts, developing standards for ensuring data reliability and transparency, and designing plats for data dissemination. 6.5What are the different characteristics of DL T 3. WHAT ARE SMART CONTRACTS 5 What Are Smart Contracts 3. 3.1 Origins and Basics Computer scientist Nick Szabo conceptualized smart contracts in a series of papers in the mid-1990s. He describes smart contracts as, “a set of promises, specified in digital , including protocols within which the parties per on these promises.” Smart contracts seek to capture contractual elements that are algorithmic in nature and protect agreements from tampering via cryptographic s. 8 Many operational elements of contracts essentially represent conditional “if-then- else” statements that are well-positioned for expression in a computer programming language. As an example, consider a weather index insurance WII policy that pays a farmer 100 if a rainfall index is below 10 mm in a given month and 0 otherwise. Figure 1 codes the payout agreement that underlies the contract. Recognizing the widespread use of Boolean logic in contracts, smart contract en
展开阅读全文