# kaal:claim:3441904-028

**Claim.** The notion that smart contract agency relationships run exactly as coded with no possibility of agent opportunism is less likely to hold in complex agency relationships, so a decentralized human backstop to code becomes necessary as those relationships grow more complex.

**Type.** failure  **Support.** argued

**Holds when.**

- complex decentralized agency relationships

**Source quote.**

> The notion that agency relationships in smart contracts run exactly as coded without any possibility of opportunistic behavior of the agent is less likely to uphold in complex agency relationships.

**From.** Wulf A. Kaal, *Blockchain-Based Corporate Governance* (2019), III.6 Decentralized Infrastructure Requirements, page 23

**Cite as.** Wulf A. Kaal, Blockchain-Based Corporate Governance (2019). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3441904

**Verify.** sha256 of source PDF `e6b562527f7f19accaa35491db0a0db168b6a936755e1dca424e9f30bee7a815` at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wulfkaal/Academic-Papers/main/papers/pdf/Kaal%20-%202019%20-%20Blockchain-Based%20Corporate%20Governance.pdf

**Failure mode.** code-only-agency-breakdown  (family: agency-cost-and-managerial-opportunism)

**Topics.** smart-contracts

**Keywords.** smart-contracts, opportunism, human-backstop, complexity

**Related claims.**

- restates: https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3373393-037
- supersedes: https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3373393-026

**Canonical form.** This markdown file is the canonical hashed representation of the claim. Its sha256 is the content hash used for attestation.