This contract made history as the first smart contract signed in Argentina and accepted by the judiciary, after Argentina legalized the use of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment in commercial contracts in December 2023.

The contract includes a loan agreement of 10,000 Cardano tokens (ADA) between Cardano ambassadors Mauro Andreoli and Lucas Macchia. This amount is worth approximately $3,380 and must be repaid within four months with a 10% interest rate, according to the terms of the contract.

This is noted as the first case where Argentinian courts could require full payment in ADA from a Cardano smart contract. Andreoli described the implementation of this agreement as a great success in an X (formerly Twitter) post on October 8.

“We succeeded, we signed the first legally and judicially enforceable contract on the Cardano network, in full compliance with the laws of the Argentine Republic,” Andreoli said in his statement.

Andreoli and Macchia also signed a legal document to support the details of the smart contract. This document contains important information such as the blockchain network that ensures the operation of the contract, the wallet used and the transaction ID.

Andreoli noted that with this “milestone,” Argentine courts may begin to more broadly recognize that smart contracts are a valid and enforceable technology for commercial agreements.

Pointing out that this development is a big step for commercial agreements, Andreoli said, “Legally, this creates evidence and accelerates the legal stages of the process. This marks the first stage of creating a positive jurisprudence in the country and facilitating commercial transactions.”

He also added that such smart contracts can also be applied to home rentals, purchase agreements and other legal contracts.

Stating that there is already a strong legal framework in Argentina, Andreoli emphasized that judges should be trained for smart contracts to become widespread. Argentina legalized the use of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in commercial contracts in December 2023, shortly after Javier Milei, known for his anti-central bank and libertarian policies, took office as president.

This new smart contract was signed before the meeting of Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson with Javier Milei at the Cardano Summit 2024, which will be held in Buenos Aires at the end of this month.

Courts in other parts of the world have also begun to accept crypto technology. In August 2023, a US court used an enforcement tool on the blockchain to block certain sanctioned individuals from accessing their crypto wallets.

In 2022, the Supreme Court of England and Wales allowed the use of non-fungible tokens (NFT) to forward a case to a defendant. Later that year, a federal court in Florida also granted approval to defendants, alleged crypto thieves, to have the case transferred to their wallets via an NFT because the defendants were anonymous.

Such developments show that smart contracts and crypto technologies are increasingly accepted in commercial and legal processes around the world. This first smart contract in Argentina stands out as an important step in this field.

This legal smart contract on the Cardano network signals that more commercial deals may be made this way in the future.