>[!abstract] >The Ricardian contract, as invented by Ian Grigg in 1996, is a method of recording a document as a contract at law, and linking it securely to other systems, such as accounting, for the contract as an issuance of value. It is robust through use of identification by cryptographic hash function, transparent through use of readable text for legal prose and efficient through markup language to extract essential information. A Ricardian contract places the defining elements of a legal agreement in a format that can be expressed and executed in software (Wikipedia, 2025). >[!related] >- **North** (upstream): [[Smart contracts]] (the general field of programmable, enforceable digital agreements) >- **West** (similar): [[Tokenization]] (representing assets digitally on a ledger, often tied to contractual terms) >- **East** (different): [[Traditional paper contracts]] (purely legal prose without embedded digital execution or metadata) >- **South** (downstream): [[Dual-format agreement]] (the Ricardian contract’s key feature: one document serving as both legal agreement and digital payload)