Cardano hosts first smart contract legally enforceable in Argentina

Cardano is hosting on its network the first legally enforceable smart contract signed in Argentina and under the jurisdiction of its courts.

The contract is a loan agreement between Cardano ambassadors Mauro Andreoli and Lucas Macchia for 10,000 Cardano ADA$0.3469 tokens—worth $3,380—payable in four months at a 10% interest rate. 

It’s the first time an Argentine court can enforce full payment in ADA from a Cardano smart contract, Andreoli explained in an Oct. 8 X post.

“We did it, we have just signed the first legally and judicially enforceable contract on the Cardano network, in full compliance with the laws of the Argentine Republic.”

Andreoli and Macchia also signed an accompanying legal document underpinning key details of the smart contract loan, including the blockchain and wallet used and the transaction ID.

Andreoli reviewing and signing the legal document. Source: Mauro Andreoli/X

Andreoli said the “milestone” could fast-track Argentine courts to more broadly acknowledge smart contracts as a technology to facilitate commercial agreements.

“Legally, this establishes evidence and streamlines procedural steps, marking the initial phase of creating favorable jurisprudence in the country and facilitating commercial transactions.”

He added that such smart contracts can be applied to the rental of houses, purchase agreements and other legal contracts.

Argentina already has a “robust legal framework” for commercial contracts, but Andreoli said the next step is to educate judges.

Argentina legalized the use of Bitcoin BTC$61,127.58 and other cryptocurrencies in commercial contracts in December 2023 — 10 days after anti-central bank libertarian Javier Milei took office as president.

Source: Mauro Andreoli 

The contract comes ahead of Cardano’s founder Charles Hoskinson’s scheduled meeting with Milei at the Cardano Summit 2024 in Buenos Aires later this month.

Other court systems have accepted crypto technology when carrying out legal proceedings.

In August 2023, a United States court used an enforcement tool on a blockchain to lock several sanctioned individuals out of their crypto wallets.

In 2022, the High Court of England and Wales allowed the use of a non-fungible token (NFT) to deliver a lawsuit to a defendant.

Later that year, a Florida federal court also allowed a suit to be served via an NFT to the wallets of alleged crypto thieves, as the defendants were unknown.