The problem is that there are much-simpler ways to achieve that, if that’s all you want. You just take a digital copy of the contract, timestamp it, and have each party cryptographically sign the contract. You don’t need a distributed ledger for that.
Distribution ensure integrity of data. Let’s say we sign a contract, cryptographically sign it and all that good stuff but then oh no, where we stored your contract went up in fire and now I don’t have to honour that contract. (contrived example I know)
The problem is that there are much-simpler ways to achieve that, if that’s all you want. You just take a digital copy of the contract, timestamp it, and have each party cryptographically sign the contract. You don’t need a distributed ledger for that.
Distribution ensure integrity of data. Let’s say we sign a contract, cryptographically sign it and all that good stuff but then oh no, where we stored your contract went up in fire and now I don’t have to honour that contract. (contrived example I know)
All parties who are involved in the contract can store a copy of a contract, even if it’s not distributed to everyone else.
The signing ensures the integrity of the data, whether using a public block chain or not.
The signed document can be distributed as widely as you’d like - it doesn’t need to be attached to a block chain to do this.