Disclaimer:
Readability and User Trust
One thing I’ve come to understand, is that blockchain tech is intimidating on multiple fronts – the people who understand the industry that a company is addressing don’t always understand the blockchain technology, and people who understand the underlying tech don’t always get the industry that a company is attempting to help.
This general murkiness is exacerbated when people come across legal terms that feel like opaque legalese. While I’m not your attorney, and an attorney-client relationship can’t be formed unless we come to an explicit arrangement (and you shouldn’t send me confidential info unless we make an explicit arrangement), I did a write-up of a blockchain company website’s terms of service that you should feel free to use. I find that this tone invites trust with users.
When writing your blockchain company’s terms and conditions, make sure to avoid the murkiness that plagues other companies.
These terms may not fit perfectly with the mission of your company, and you should have your attorney review them to make sure they work for you. Additionally, they don’t include a privacy policy, ICO terms or anything else specific.
Example Terms
${“Company”} cannot predict every success or failure, so we cannot and do not guarantee any outcomes with regard to our services, offerings, website, products, etc. Blockchain is a new technology, and even experts have a hard time understanding what the best opportunities are for applying the technology. Therefore, you shouldn’t purchase any cryptocurrencies, tokens, or blockchain-based offerings without significant experience and background in the technology, industry, and market trends. You should also get the advice of an attorney, accountant, and/or investment advisor before undertaking any sort of purchasing activity with blockchain technologies.
1. Taxation of ${“Company”} and Taxation Related to Tokens
${“Company”} can’t reasonably address the tax implications of every person who purchases a token or has any variety of financial activity related to our services. You are responsible for understanding the tax implications of your actions in regards to our services. An example of actions that would have tax consequences for you is buying and selling tokens for either cash or other crypto-based currencies. There could be other tax implications of your actions, so you should retain professional advice regarding your activities.
2. Privacy
We may contact you by email from time to time to keep you in the loop with what we’re up to. If you’re thinking about investing, want to get involved in the blockchain marketplace, or are generally interested in the developments in our target industries, then we want to make sure you’re informed.
3. Force Majeure
It may seem dumb to say, but we have to say it and you need to agree to it: the ${“Company”} Team is not liable for failures to perform solely caused by circumstances outside of our exclusive control. Some limited examples include government regulation or embargoes, natural disasters, and breakdowns in the supply chain.
4. Disclaimer of Warranties
${“Company”} and its employees do not offer any warranties about our products or services except to the minimum extent as required by law. This means that we can’t make promises that things will work out one way or another, and our employees are unable to make any promises like that either. If you are under the impression that a promise has been made on our website or by an employee regarding processes or services, then you should check with one of our team members and refer them to this paragraph to clarify the accuracy — it is unlikely to be an authorized warranty or promise.
5. Limitations/Waiver of Liability
As mentioned before, cryptocurrencies, blockchains, ledgers and signatures can all get very complicated, and we encourage only experts to take advantage of our services. Because of this, we insist on a few things. We cannot be held responsible if things go wrong. Whether it is because of some weakness in our services and products, or if it’s because of some external factor, we are not to be held responsible in any way for various misfortunes that may derive from your interactions with ${“Company”}. We make no warranties, guaranties, or any other “-ies” about particular outcomes from using our offerings.
Some legal jurisdictions require by law that various warranties remain in effect. In those cases where the law applies to you, you retain those specified rights. Additionally, you retain all statutory rights regarding problems arising from any wilful misconduct or fraud of the ${“Company”} team.
6. Complete Agreement
These terms govern all interactions between you and ${“Company”}. If there is a conflict between these terms and any other source, then these terms control the agreement. We don’t intend any confusion, but sometimes things can get complicated even though we do our best to keep it simple. If you think another set of terms that you read somewhere or heard from someone conflicts with these terms, then just remember that these terms are what a court will read as the official agreement.
7. Severability
If any portion of this agreement is illegal or unenforceable, then only the terms found to be illegal or unenforceable shall be stricken from the agreement, and only to the extent necessary to correct the agreement, and the correction shall only be applicable to the relevant jurisdiction of the court. The rest of the agreement shall continue to have full effect, and all jurisdictions not subject to the court shall otherwise still be bound by the entirety of the agreement.
8. No Waiver
${“Company”} never intends to waive its rights under this agreement. Just because we might not logistically be able to police every breach of the terms that happens by any given consumer, that does not mean that we have given up our legal rights under these terms. Additionally, as stated under the “Complete Agreement” section, these terms control. Any interaction you may have with the ${“Company”} website or team that makes you think ${“Company”} has given up its legal rights under the agreement does not control. Only the language in these terms control. If a team member of ${“Company”} with the authority to do so waives a right under these terms, it is only for a specific instance of that right. In other words, permission to do something once is not permission to do the same thing multiple times.
9. Updates to the Terms
We occasionally will need to update these terms as the law changes, as ${“Company”} grows, and as our services evolve. Because of that, we need to retain the flexibility to change these terms whenever we need to. We try to keep these terms as consistent as possible for clarity’s sake, but you should check back from time to time to see if any changes have been made. Additionally, even though these terms control in the case of discrepancies, we may post other terms that apply to specific services, such as a “Privacy Policy” or a “Cookie Policy,” and you should check those too.
10. Cooperation with Legal Authorities
Law enforcement can have a variety of reasons why they would need information from ${“Company”} or any other company, and we want to assure you that we will cooperate with a law enforcement request to the best of our ability and subject to our best efforts to understand whether the request is legal or not, and whether the request is enforceable or not.
11. Indemnification
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, you will indemnify, defend and hold harmless the ${“Company”} Team from and against all claims, demands, actions, damages, losses, costs and expenses (including attorneys’ fees) that arise from or relate to: (i) your purchase or use of ${“Company”}; (ii) your responsibilities or obligations under these terms; (iii) your violation of these terms; or (iv) your violation of any rights of any other person or entity. The Company reserves the right to exercise sole control over the defense, at your expense, of any claim subject to indemnification under this Section. This indemnity is in addition to, and not in lieu of, any other indemnities set forth in a written agreement between you and the Company.
12. Security
You are responsible for implementing reasonable measures for securing the wallet, vault or other storage mechanism you use to receive and hold ${“Company”} purchased from the Company, including any requisite private key(s) or other credentials necessary to access such storage mechanism(s). If your private key(s) or other access credentials are lost, you may lose access to your Tokens. The Company is not responsible for any losses, costs or expenses relating to lost access credentials.
13. Language
In the case that there is a translation of the ${“Company”} terms in a language other than English, the English language version of the terms is the controlling document.
14. Governing Law
The terms, the arbitration clause contained in them, and all non-contractual obligations arising in any way whatsoever out of or in connection with these terms are governed by, construed, and take effect in accordance with the laws of the state and country in which ${“Company”} is incorporated.
15. Arbitration
If something goes wrong, and a dispute arises between you and ${“Company”}, then the dispute shall be settled by binding arbitration at a venue in the jurisdiction of ${“Company”}’s primary place of business, and the arbitration proceedings will be in English.
You agree that the only legal action you can bring against the company is the mentioned binding arbitration proceedings, and you cannot participate in any other form of legal action against the company, nor can you take part in any sort of class action proceeding.
Arbitration tends to keep legal costs down, and speeds up the process. Additionally, limiting any future legal action to an individual arbitration allows each party to fully present its case with greater specificity than might otherwise be possible.
