In the US, they don’t do the cryptographic signatures, they do the image. There are document signing services where you just type your name and it creates a “handwritten” signature from that name and that’s legally binding apparently.
I found it very funny when I had to sign a contract with an American company that way. Not sure it would’ve been legally binding in my jurisdiction, but the contracts was more or less “don’t tell anyone about exact details of the sizable bonus you’re about to receive, or we’ll revoke it, also you’ll have to stick around for half a year to receive the other half”, when the company got sold to private equity and the original owner decided to give us all something to remember them by.
Natanael@infosec.pub 1 week ago
Old school contract law was always about expressed mutual understanding, and predates widespread ability to read and write so didn’t require papers (but did like having witnesses of the agreement).
You still see surviving requirements of some contract signings needing witnesses.
It’s still the same in the digital age, if you can demonstrate all participants agreed then the form doesn’t matter much (aside from in regulated fields, some have their own requirements on form).