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Cited by 2,102

The DOI matches its Crossref record.

Formalizing and Securing Relationships on Public Networks

Open access
Szabo, Nick·1997·First Monday
DOI 10.5210/fm.v2i9.548
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Abstract

Smart contracts combine protocols with user interfaces to formalize and secure relationships over computer networks. Objectives and principles for the design of these systems are derived from legal principles, economic theory, and theories of reliable and secure protocols. Similarities and differences between smart contracts and traditional business procedures based on written contracts, controls, and static forms are discussed. By using cryptographic and other security mechanisms, we can secure many algorithmically specifiable relationships from breach by principals, and from eavesdropping or malicious interference by third parties, up to considerations of time, user interface, and completeness of the algorithmic specification. This article discusses protocols with application in important contracting areas, including credit, content rights management, payment systems, and contracts with bearer.

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Metadata

Authors
Szabo, N.
Venue
First Monday
Publisher
University of Illinois Libraries
Published
1997-09-01
Volume
2
Issue
9
ISSN
  • 1396-0458 (ISSN-L)
  • 1396-0466
DOI
10.5210/fm.v2i9.548
OpenAlex
W1969344535
Cited by
2,102
References
0
FWCI
1.11
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Formalizing and Securing Relationships on Public Networks. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.5210/fm.v2i9.548
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Szabo, N. (1997). Formalizing and Securing Relationships on Public Networks. First Monday. https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v2i9.548

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Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.

Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.