Method and system for controlling the performance of a contract using a distributed hash table and a peer-to-peer distributed ledger

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising machine-readable instructions which, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to:

• store a contract in a Distributed Hash Table (DHT) comprising a plurality of key-value pairs, the contract being associated with a contract for computer software between a first user (U1) and a second user (U2),
• determining, by the processing resource, a key and a key value pair based on the computer software and the license;
• receive at the processing device over a communications network, a transaction comprising a transfer of a token from an agent (A) to the first user (U1) or the second user (U2), the transaction comprising metadata that includes an identifier indicative of a location in the DHT where the contract is stored;
• query, by the processing device, a peer-to-peer distributed ledger to determine whether the transaction comprises at least one unspent output (UTXO) wherein querying a peer-to-peer distributed ledger comprises scanning the peer-to-peer distributed ledger to identify the at least one unspent output (UTXO) to determine whether the at least one unspent output (UTXO) has been spent or not;
• and
• modifying, by the processing device, performance of the contract, wherein the modifying comprises:
• terminating the contract in the event that the at least one unspent output (UTXO) cannot be identified from the peer-to-peer distributed ledger, or
• maintain the contract in the event that the at least one unspent output (UTXO) is identified from the peer-to-peer distributed ledger, wherein the step of terminating the license comprises broadcasting a further transaction to spend the at least one unspent output (UTXO), wherein in the step of broadcasting the further transaction, the further transaction comprises an instruction to spend the at least one unspent output (UTXO) at a specified date and/or time, wherein the further transaction comprises:
• an input that spends the at least one unspent output (UTXO);
• and
• a redeem script comprising a signature, the metadata, an agent pubic key associated with the agent, and a first user public key associated with the first user.

A computer system for controlling the performance of a contract, the system comprising a processing device configured to:

• store a contract in a Distributed Hash Table (DHT) comprising a plurality of key-value pairs, the contract being associated with a contract of computer software between a first user (U1) and a second user (U2),
• determining, by the processing resource, a key and a key value pair based on the computer software and the contract;
• receive, over a communications network, a transaction comprising a transfer of a token from an agent (A) to the first user (U1) or the second user (U2), the transaction comprising metadata that includes an identifier indicative of a location in the DHT where the contract is stored;
• query a peer-to-peer distributed ledger to determine whether the transaction comprises at least one unspent output (UTXO);
• and
• modifying performance of the contract, wherein the modifying comprises:
• terminating the contract in the event that the at least one unspent output (UTXO) cannot be identified from the peer-to-peer distributed ledger, or
• maintain the contract in the event that the at least one unspent output (UTXO) is identified from the peer-to-peer distributed ledger, wherein the step of terminating the license comprises broadcasting a further transaction to spend the unspent output (UTXO), wherein in the step of broadcasting the further transaction, the further transaction comprises an instruction to spend the at least one unspent output (UTXO) at a specified date and/or time, wherein the further transaction comprises:
• an input that spends the at least one unspent output (UTXO);
• and
• a redeem script comprising a signature, the metadata, an agent public key associated with the agent, and a first user public key associated with the first user.