Rights and Obligations are the 2 most fundamental building blocks of trade and finance. Contracts exist to protect rights and enforce obligations. Trade consists of trading one right or obligation for another.

They are also fundamental in understanding how Financial Systems, Blockchains and Smart Contracts work, yet most people haven’t really thought too much about what they actually work.

I believe it is vital to understand and think about these basic concepts to be able to successfully understand Bitcoin, Ethereum and eventually replace the traditional financial instruments and systems that are all based on this.

This article is a quick introduction rights and obligations and how to think about them in financial applications, in particular when writing Smart Contracts.

There used to be a time not too long ago (in the 60s) when the top UK income tax rate was 97.5%, the top US income tax rate was 94%. Granted these rates were for the 1%’s of that time.

I suspect that these rates came as a response to the “Pay their fair share” crowd of that day.

In other words these high marginal tax rates where always intended more as a way of pleasing peoples emotions than a pragmatic goal of generating more revenue.

If you haven't read the first article in this series I recommend you go read it first: Ethereum vs Mossack Fonseca: The IBC and it’s blockchain alternatives

Trusts are an ancient contract structure going back to Roman days. A trust is used to separate control from the benefits of an asset.

Traditionally a trust is used by a rich father to ensure that his wealth is not spent away by his no-good spendthrift kids.

Whatever your opinions about the Panama Papers saga. There are both perfectly legitimate and absolutely illegal ways of using the services of an Offshore Trust company like Mossack Fonseca.

Ethereum through it’s Smart Contracts can actually replace many of the legitimate ways of using offshore structures, while at the same time make some of the illegal ways less useful.

As I discussed in my previous article From Contract to Smart Contract a Smart Contract is not necessarily a contract in it self.

If the Smart Contract is designed to be run 100% autonomously you don’t necessarily need what a normal legal contract offers you. But very few things live entirely on the block chain for now.