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Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE)

Smart Contracts for Venture Finance

  • Book
  • Jun 2025

Overview

Authors:
  1. Michael J. Maher

    1. Reasoning Research Institute, Mitchell, Australia

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  2. Ron van der Meyden

    1. School of Computer Science and Engineering, UNSW Sydney, NSW, Australia

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    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Describes the design and implementation of a smart contract version of a financial contract
  • Includes an in-depth financial analysis of SAFEs and conversion methods, clarifying some confusion in the practice
  • Provides details on case study of a specific smart legal contract

Part of the book series: Blockchain Technologies (BT)

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About this book

This book presents a case study of the development of a smart contract, from the analysis of the legal contract to the structural design of the smart contract and implementation on the Ethereum blockchain. It identifies approaches to avoid or lessen the impact of pitfalls. And it discusses strategies to address the interaction between parties to the smart contract and legal authorities. The legal contract that is implemented is the simple agreement for future equity (or SAFE), which is widely used for financing startup companies. The analysis of this contract has the additional advantage that it clarifies issues in the conversion of a SAFE contract to equity that are a source of confusion in practice. This book is of interest to anyone in the field of digital finance, as well as to venture capitalists and entrepreneurs making use of SAFEs.

Keywords

  • Fintech
  • Blockchain
  • Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
  • Digital Finance
  • Smart Contracts
  • Convertible Bonds
  • Venture Capital
  • Angel Investor
  • Computational Law
  • AI & Law

Authors and Affiliations

  • Reasoning Research Institute, Mitchell, Australia

    Michael J. Maher

  • School of Computer Science and Engineering, UNSW Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Ron van der Meyden

About the authors

Dr. Michael J. Maher obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Melbourne. Currently, he is Director at Reasoning Research Institute in Canberra. His research interests are in the areas of computational law, defeasible reasoning, argumentation, constraint logic programming.

Dr. Ron van der Meyden is Professor in the School of Computer Science and Engineering at UNSW, Sydney. His research interests include: computer security; logic in computer science; logic of knowledge and belief; temporal logic; distributed systems; blockchain; and smart contracts.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE)

  • Book Subtitle: Smart Contracts for Venture Finance

  • Authors: Michael J. Maher, Ron van der Meyden

  • Series Title: Blockchain Technologies

  • Publisher: Springer Singapore

  • eBook Packages: Computer Science, Computer Science (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2025

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-96-3919-9Due: 30 June 2025

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-981-96-3922-9Due: 30 June 2026

  • eBook ISBN: 978-981-96-3920-5Due: 30 June 2025

  • Series ISSN: 2661-8338

  • Series E-ISSN: 2661-8346

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XX, 286

  • Number of Illustrations: 12 b/w illustrations

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