Bitcoin OS Atomic Contracts (bOSacs) represent a revolutionary framework that fuses Ian Grigg's Ricardian Contracts with Ronald Coase's Theory of the Firm, creating a new paradigm for decentralized organizational coordination powered by Bitcoin technology.
This framework enables unprecedented efficiency in coordination mechanisms through the elimination of transaction costs and the provision of cryptographic certainty, while maintaining legal enforceability and human readability.
Complete technical specification optimized for printing and corporate distribution
Created by Ian Grigg, Ricardian Contracts are documents that are simultaneously human and machine-readable, cryptographically signed, and carry information about rights and obligations. They bridge the gap between legal prose and code execution, providing a foundation for automated legal compliance.
Key characteristics include:
Reference: Ricardian Contract - Wikipedia
Nobel Prize winner Ronald Coase's groundbreaking theory explains why firms exist and when market mechanisms are superior to hierarchical organization. The theory centers on transaction costs - the costs of using the price mechanism.
Core principles include:
Reference: Theory of the Firm - Wikipedia
bOSacs represent the revolutionary fusion of these two foundational concepts. By combining the legal and technical enforceability of Ricardian Contracts with the economic efficiency insights of Coasian theory, bOSacs create a new paradigm for organizational coordination in the digital age.
This fusion is powered by Bitcoin's instant settlement capabilities, enabling unprecedented efficiency in coordination mechanisms through the elimination of transaction costs and the provision of cryptographic certainty.
Each bOSac is a self-contained, indivisible contract unit that executes completely or not at all. This atomic property ensures transactional integrity and eliminates partial execution failures that plague traditional smart contract systems.
Real-time performance auditing through blockchain-based verification provides immutable proof of contract execution, creating unprecedented transparency and accountability in automated systems.
Intelligent micro-contracting mechanisms enable automated coordination between parties, dynamically switching between market-based and hierarchical coordination based on real-time cost analysis.
Dynamic value networks replace traditional hierarchical structures, allowing organizations to automatically reconfigure based on project requirements and market conditions.
Real-time micropayments and resource allocation through Bitcoin's payment infrastructure eliminate traditional settlement delays and enable true pay-per-use resource models.
Automated contract execution minimizes coordination costs, following Coase's insights to optimize the boundary between market and hierarchical coordination mechanisms.
Organizations that automatically reorganize based on project requirements, forming temporary hierarchies for complex tasks and reverting to flat structures for routine work.
Example: AI research collaboration networks
Real-time trading of computational resources where contracts automatically optimize for cost, performance, and reliability based on current market conditions.
Example: GPU compute sharing networks
Business partnerships that automatically adjust profit sharing, decision making, and resource allocation based on each party's real-time contributions.
Example: Content creator collectives
Supply chains that dynamically reconfigure based on cost, quality, and timing constraints, automatically switching between suppliers and logistics providers.
Example: Global manufacturing networks
Grigg, Ian. "The Ricardian Contract." 1996.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricardian_contract
Coase, Ronald. "The Nature of the Firm." Economica, 1937.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_the_firm
The Bitcoin Corporation LTD. "Bitcoin OS Technical Documentation." 2025.
https://www.bitcoin-os.website
This groundbreaking framework represents the fusion of Ian Grigg's Ricardian Contracts with Ronald Coase's Theory of the Firm, creating a new paradigm for decentralized organizational structures powered by Bitcoin technology.
bOSacs enable unprecedented efficiency in coordination mechanisms through the elimination of transaction costs and the provision of cryptographic certainty, while maintaining legal enforceability and human readability.
Developed for Bitcoin-OS by The Bitcoin Corporation LTD
Copyright © 2025 • Open-BSV-4.0 License
Document Version: 2.0 | Date: November 2025