faust

Swearing by something is an interesting concept that we used to do more often; but we don’t as anymore. One used to swear on their mother’s grave, or their children - essentially asking God(s) to be your witness and arbiter of truth. 

In order to make a transaction of trust, (like a claim, a future claim) one needed to have a trusted third party they could both ideologically trust to execute the transaction, and general rules of conduct they would abide by 

in a way, in a world where we don’t know what to trust, you need ways to swear to third parties because that’s what helps us navigate your own world

creating and destroying; built flying cars & autonomous vehicles, now building /faust, more here: /july, web: july.rocks

What changed; morality declined in favour of legality

People began to abide less by an internal moral code, and more with “what can I get away with” as a function of legal / financial consequences, especially as globalisation meant economic interactions disconnected from immediate social environment and repercussions

Onchain and smart contracts can definitely help solve this on a macro level.

On a micro level though, the core answer is to have a good filter on who you deal with, and aim to always be in alignment on the spirit of the agreements you undertake in good will, falling back to the letter of the agreement, and enforcements where misunderstandings cannot be easily resolved.