Welcome to the @OriginalWorks sponsored writing contest!

Status: CLOSED.

Accepted Languages:

• English

Start Time: ~8 PM ET, Saturday
End Time: ~8 PM ET, Tuesday

Special Twitter 0.5 STEEM bonus!
Details outlined at the bottom.

This is a call to all great Steemit writers! Kleros has sponsored a Steemit writing contest!

Please make sure to read the contest topic carefully. Good luck!

Prize Pool Total: 940 STEEM

Prizes: 690 STEEM + 250 STEEM (100 bonuses of 2.5 STEEM!) + Twitter Bonus (Details Below)

• 1st Place: 71 STEEM
• 2nd Place: 61 STEEM
• 3rd Place: 53 STEEM
• 4th Place: 48 STEEM
• 5th Place: 37 STEEM
• 6th Place: 35 STEEM
• 7th Place: 29 STEEM
• 8th Place: 26 STEEM
• 9th Place: 23 STEEM
• 10th Place: 22 STEEM
• 11th Place: 21 STEEM
• 12th Place: 20 STEEM
• 13th Place: 18 STEEM
• 14th Place: 16 STEEM
• 15th Place: 15 STEEM
• 16th - 20th: 12 STEEM
• 21st - 25th: 9 STEEM
• 26th - 30th: 8 STEEM
• 31st - 40th: 5 STEEM
• 41st - 140th: 2.5 STEEM Bonus

Deadline: 72 Hours

All articles must be submitted within 72 hours of this post to be considered!

Changes in submission rules below

What is Kleros?

Disputes are a natural part of any interaction. Some disputes are handled through an amicable conversation, while others can be dreadfully long and painstaking for both parties involved.

What if there was a decentralized service that connects disputing parties to experts in the field? What if the agreement in place by the two parties gives the experts the right to vote on who is correct in a dispute?

Kleros is a opt-in dispute resolution platform. Kleros is a network of jurors specializing in various categories who are available to settle disputes. By utilizing smart contracts, Kleros can escrow any funds in question until a resolution is put forth by the selected jurors.

Adjudication is expensive and time-consuming. With Kleros, both parties can be protected in the case that a contract is breached.

The Current State of Dispute Resolution

With the advent of technology, there is a rising number of small businesses. This also means that there are a growing number of cases where the transaction value is too small to incur the additional costs associated with taking the case to court. While a million dollar loss is worth taking to court, what about a two-hundred dollar deal?

In the current state of dispute resolution, there is no cost-effective and fair solution. Freelancing websites often have poor resolution protocols that lead to an unfair assessment by an unqualified individual. In some cases, there is simply no resolution protocol at all, leaving one of the parties with a complete loss.

As the number of individuals offering services continues to grow, this problem will only get worse.

Kleros: Resolution Mechanism

The Kleros resolution mechanism is made up of subcourts defined by categories.

Source: WhitePaper, Page 3

Upon the creation of a contract, the parties involved would select the details of their Kleros integration. They would select:

• Number of jurors
• Category of contract (subcourt)
• Outcomes

By picking the most relevant subcourt, they can rest easy knowing that should a dispute arise, it will be dealt with by knowledgeable individuals in the space.

If or when a dispute arises, the jurors will be presented with a number of possible outcomes from which to choose. The choices are stipulated by the contracting parties beforehand.

Kleros Experiement: Live

Kleros has launched a pilot experiment to showcase how Kleros works.

Doges on Trial

Doges are uploaded to the website, and users can challenge whether it is indeed a Doge or not. Although this is just a fun experiment, it is a great example of a potential use-case as well.

Source: Doges on Trial, "How it Works"

The above graphic demonstrates the entire decision making process associated with whether a Doge is submitted or not. The process accounts for multiple appeals while being efficient for cases where no disputes arise. This application alone can have many implications for large user published content creation websites!

Kleros Incentive System

Jurors rule disputes in order to collect arbitration fees. They are incentivized to rule honestly because, after a dispute is over, jurors whose vote is not coherent with the group will lose some tokens which will be given to coherent jurors.

Source: WhitePaper, Page 8

The incentivization system at Kleros ensures that while dispute resolution costs are low, the jurors are properly compensated to continue doing good work.

The juror system is also able to deduce good jurors from poor jurors based on the coherency of their votes.
For example, if there are five jurors, with outcome options "A" and "B". If four choose "A" and one chooses "B", then option "A" will win. In this case, the one judge who voted "B" would be considered to have voted incoherently. Although one dispute is not very telling, if a judge rules incoherently 90% of the time over 100 instances, clearly they are a poor judge and they would lose tokens.

Source: WhitePaper, Page 9

Kleros Use-Cases

Case 1:

Sam is a web designer. He has a small business, and depends on his income from doing web design work.

He recently secures a small client, Pots’n’Pans, who decide to hire him after viewing his portfolio. They agree on a set of payments to be made totaling $2000.

The first $500 is released at the start of the job, another $500 after the backend is complete, and the last $1000 upon the completion of the job.

They define a clear scope of work and what the client needs.

The client pays Sam the first $500 and off they go!

After a few weeks, when Sam completes the backend to spec, he contacts the client for his second payment. They let him know that they decided to change direction, and are not interested in continuing the development process.

What can Sam do?

Even with evidence of his interaction and their agreement with the client, realistically, there is not much to be done.

Going to small claims court or engaging in a lengthy dispute would cost more than to just accept it as a loss.

Had Sam secured their agreement via Kleros, there would’ve been a panel of judges that could’ve helped to settle this dispute. But without it, Sam is out $1500.

Case 2:

CoolHats is a small hat store located in the heart of New York. They have a small niche and they get by because of the loyal following they have developed. Their business is seeing some growth, and they decide it is time to do some renovation work. They find an inexpensive contractor online, and ask him to put up some walls to divide their office from the store space, as well as repaint the whole place.

The contractor quotes them at $5000, including labour and materials. He also guarantees that the work will be finished in under two weeks.

CoolHats decides to accept this offer, as it is $2000 below what they expected to pay. Since the contractor does not have much of a reputation, they use Kleros to put into place a smart contract that safeguards them in the case that he is not able to perform his duties.

The first day, the contractor does not show up. He stated he is not feeling too well, but not to worry, since he will come in early the next day.
A week passes, and the contractor showed up only once, took some measurements and left.

At this point, CoolHats is worried that the work will not be done. But since the stated two week period is not over, they continue waiting.

At the end of two weeks, the contractor says that the job will most likely take a month due to his busy schedule.

No problem! CoolHats starts a dispute through Kleros. They send in a copy of their agreement as well as before and after pictures. Their contract states that there will be five jurors specializing in renovations and their options set as follows:
A. Return entire sum to CoolHats
B. Pay entire sum to contractor
C. Split 50/50

The verdict comes back in three days, with all five out of five jurors choosing option “A”.

Instead of having to deal with an irresponsible second party or go through any official dispute channels, they are able to resolve this issue quickly and efficiently. The system is guaranteed by smart contracts so the verdict will result in an instant refund!

For more information watch this short feature intro: