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Contract Negotiation

Perhaps the most critical capability, this allows two participants to agree on the specific terms (Policies) under which data will be shared and to establish legally and technically meaningful agreements governing data sharing.

This capability is defined by DSP negotiation messages and state machines, which formalize the lifecycle of a data sharing agreement through states such as request, offer, acceptance, agreement, verification, and finalization.

  • Negotiation is stateful and asynchronous
  • Both parties maintain a synchronized view of the contract state
  • Contract messages reference policies, assets, and constraints expressed in machine-readable form

The result of contract negotiation is an agreement that can be referenced by orchestration and observability mechanisms, without embedding the contract logic into the data plane.

Key architectural concepts

  • Automated Negotiation: The Dataspace Protocol: Contract Negotiation Protocol manages a state machine (Request → Offer → Agreement) that leads to a legally and technically binding Agreement.
  • Policy Expression: Uses the ODRL (Open Digital Rights Language) to define Permissions (what you can do), Prohibitions (what you cannot do), and Duties (obligations like payment or logging).
  • Agreement Verification: Before data is transferred, the agreement is verified to ensure both parties are still in compliance with the negotiated terms.

Further Resources