What Are Smart Contracts?

Smart contracts are computer protocols that facilitate, verify, and execute the negotiation or execution of a contract, or that render a contractual clause ineffective (because it is attached to the smart contract). Smart contracts often have a user interface that mimics the logic of contract terms. Smart contracts, on the other hand, are computer code, and even if the user interface disappeared, it would still be able to communicate with them. Only the network on which the smart contracts are housed might cause their inaccessibility.

The phrase “smart contract” is often connected with the Ethereum protocol, which portrays itself as a more programmable version of Bitcoin, significantly extending the area of decentralized applications. However, cypherpunk luminary Nick Szabo originally wrote about the issue in 1994. With the emergence of distributed consensus protocols and cryptocurrencies designed to facilitate borderless, safe, censorship-resistant, and programmable exchanges of digital values, a new technology sector is opening up to the programming of smart contracts. Although Ethereum is the most well-known protocol for creating smart contracts, it is not the only one, and smart contracts may now be implemented on rival blockchains.

Smart Contract: History

The phrase “smart contracts” was invented by computer scientist Nick Szabo in 1993 to underline the significance of incorporating “highly evolved” contract law and associated business practices into the architecture of e-commerce protocols. Inspired by researchers such as David Chaum, Nick Szabo anticipated that the specification (defined by clear logic), verification, and execution of an operation via cryptographic protocols and other digital security mechanisms could provide a significant improvement over traditional law framing contracts and their contractual clauses.

. Mark Miller and other researchers have emphasized the value that smart contracts can bring to security 5, alongside Chaum and other financial cryptography researchers who have emphasized the value of cryptographic protocols in ensuring the privacy of digital money, credentials, and electronic contracts signing. The creation of smart contracts is the culmination of numerous attempts to enhance operations in many sectors via the use of digital technologies. The IEEE held two seminars on electronic contracts that resulted in development in this field.

Smart Contract: Definition

Smart contracts, also known as intelligent contracts, are irreversible computer programs that are often implemented on a blockchain that perform a set of predefined instructions.

The primary idea underlying smart contracts is to ensure the binding force of contracts not via legislation, but directly through computer code: “code is law,” to use Lawrence Lessig’s famous phrase.

The complexity of any smart contract varies, as it does with any computer program. Some smart contracts use basic conditions, such as an Excel “if” function (if such a condition is satisfied, the contract is performed – “if this then that” for short), but others are whole gasworks. Some smart contracts, for example, try to recreate all of the conditions and regulations that allow businesses (commercial or otherwise) to exist. This is commonly referred to as a DAO, which stands for Decentralized Autonomous Organization. It should be emphasized that complexity is frequently the enemy of security.

How  Smart Contracts Works

The smart contract is a computerized version of the paper contract. During the execution of the smart contract, all validation processes are stored in the blockchain utilized (most often Ethereum), allowing all data to be secured by prohibiting a posteriori alteration or deletion.

The great majority of smart contracts are utilized in reality to automate value transfers in the form of crypto assets. All accounting records linked to these digital asset swaps are methodically documented in the blockchain. All asset transactions are therefore public, predictable, and irreversible. Anyone on the blockchain may check the accurate execution of the smart contract and ascertain whose asset it is.

Smart contracts, therefore, ensure an incredibly loaded set of execution criteria, which generally leave no space for ambiguity or confusion. The prerequisites are extremely clearly defined, and the interpretation of the code is unequivocal, in contrast to human interpretation, which always provides the possibility for discussion or the finding of a legal vacuum.

Smart contracts, like paper contracts, are essentially standardized, and we can use templates to make them. The most well-known smart contract standard is ERC-20, and its primary role is to facilitate the generation of tokens (digital assets, cryptocurrencies) on the Ethereum network.

The Smart Contract’s Benefits And Disadvantages

>> Benefits

Public blockchains provide excellent potential for deploying smart contracts in an exceedingly secure manner. There are presently hundreds of ERC-20 tokens (all cryptocurrencies created by an ERC-20 smart contract) worth several billion dollars.

The smart contract has several advantages. These enable you to:

• Using blockchains’ openness and immutability to secure an agreement between two (or more) parties
• Automate payment to remove the danger of non-payment, which is common in the setting of a typical contract.
• Reduce the intermediate expenses of contract formulation, monitoring, and signing dramatically (notary, lawyer)

>> Disadvantages

However, smart contracts have problems that blockchain and distributed ledger technology experts are now attempting to address. The biggest downside is the danger of errors, which is inherent in any computer program.

Smart contract code is often open-source, but if it is improperly constructed, it might allow hackers to exploit weaknesses to the prejudice of other users. The DAO attack, which resulted in a loss of more than $150 million, is the most well-known case of hacking (in ether). Following this well-known attack, the Ethereum community made the difficult decision to alter the transaction history recorded in the Ethereum blockchain a posteriori in order to deprive the hacker of his plunder and refund the stolen ethers.

This sort of issue highlights the issue of blockchain immutability (“Code is Law”) in the face of the necessity to reintroduce human involvement inside the context of a smart contract in order to restore morality and public order. There is a concept stating that it is feasible to add another type of governance to blockchains organized by a sophisticated game of smart contracts to specify plausible circumstances of arbitration in the event of an emergency. Purists of Bitcoin and its evolutions, on the other hand, advocate for as little human and political intrusion as possible in these ecosystems.

Examples Of Smart Contracts

Several blockchains support the deployment of smart contracts, the most well-known of which being Ethereum, which already has a huge number of decentralized apps written using smart contracts. However, smart contracts may also be programmed using other promising protocols like as EOS, Tezos, or Cosmos. The Cardano blockchain, which is presently in development, also allows for this, ensuring a degree of security suited for the most essential systems.

For the time being, the most tested smart contracts are written in Ethereum and are listed on StateoftheDapps. And so much more… The smart contract economy is still in its infancy, but it appears to have a promising future. Many decentralized applications are now being developed in the health, insurance, and supply chain sectors (pharmaceuticals, food, cosmetics, and so on). The 2020s will most certainly provide a considerably different organization than our current model of paper contracts and software managed by trustworthy third parties. An economy in which cryptocurrency will be important.

Other smart contracts examples:

• DRM Licences
• Bitcoin
• P2P Network
• Credit execution
• Oracles
• Double fort