Even as the hype around blockchain grows, its use-cases are also getting more interesting.
An app called LegalFling is now letting users get what it calls “explicit consent” for sexual flings. One-night stands can be a grey area, what with participants often being inebriated, and consent can often be wonky. LegalFling says it allows its users to sign a legally-binding digital contract with each other before they get hot and heavy.
While it might not sound like the most romantic idea to get your partner to open an app and record consent before you take off their clothes, LegalFling says it is a necessity in today’s troubled times. “Sex should be fun and safe, but nowadays a lot of things can go wrong. Think of unwanted videos, withholding information about STDs and offensive porn reenactment,” warns its site. “LegalFling creates a legally binding agreement, which means any offense is a breach of contract. By using the Live Contracts protocol, your private agreement is verifiable using the blockchain and enforceable with a single click,” it says.
LegalFling claims it tries to take the awkwardness out of getting your partner to sign an agreement before you coitus. While people currently aren’t exactly getting printouts of legal agreements and fumbling around for pens as their partner waits in bed, LegalFling says can simply send a consent request to your partner through Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram or SMS. The partner can then agree to sexual consent through a single tap.
And LegalFling has really thought out its use cases — users can, with the help of handy slider buttons on its app, even specify the exact terms of the sexual encounter, including whether they’re okay with being filmed, or whether they’re going to use condoms, or if they have STDs. Once the deed is done and users discover their criteria haven’t been met, LegalFling also allows them to send cease-and-desist letters and even enforce penalty payments.
While LegalFling might sound like it’s from some dystopian future, it is one of the few use-cases going around that’s actually perfectly suited for the blockchain. The blockchain powers cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, but it also is useful for securely (and privately) storing contracts. Since nobody wants to broadcast their sexual partners to a central agency, the blockchain can come in incredibly handy for such a situation.
But it still remains to be seen if anyone actually wants to draft legal documents before they get laid — the world isn’t a Black Mirror episode. Yet.