Smart contract
Smart contracts also known as a smart property are computer protocols that facilitate, verify, or enforce the negotiation or performance of a contract, or that make a contractual clause unnecessary. Smart contracts usually also have a user interface and often emulate the logic of contractual clauses. Proponents of smart contracts claim that many kinds of contractual clauses may thus be made partially or fully self-executing, self-enforcing, or both. Smart contracts aim to provide security superior to traditional contract law and to reduce other transaction costs associated with contracting.
Computing platforms and software that can be organised for rational decision making methods which achieve meaningful execution are known as agoric systems. These type of contracts have been traditionally drafted by lawyers.
The real world implementation of a smart contract that gained mainstream coverage was The DAO, a distributed autonomous organization for venture capital funding, which was launched with US$150 million in crowdfunding in May 2016 and was hacked and drained of approximately US$50 million in cryptocurrency three weeks later.
Contents
Synonyms
Definition
A smart contract is a computerized transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract. The general objectives are to satisfy common contractual conditions (such as payment terms, liens, confidentiality, and even enforcement), minimize exceptions both malicious and accidental, and minimize the need for trusted intermediaries. Related economic goals include lowering fraud loss, arbitrations and enforcement costs, and other transaction costs. A smart contract is "a computerized transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract,"[3] it is not inherently "smart" as a separate attribute of contract type.[12][unreliable source?] A blockchain-based smart contract is visible to all users of said blockchain. However, this leads to a situation where bugs, including security holes, are visible to all but may not be able to be quickly fixed.[13] Such an attack, difficult to fix quickly, was successfully executed on The DAO in June 2016, draining US$50 million in Ether while developers attempted to come to a solution that would gain consensus.[2] The program on the blockchain had time requirements in place before the hacker could access the funds, and remove funds from The DAO contract. A hard fork of the blockchain was done to claw back the funds from the attacker before the time limit expired.[14]
Motivation & Background
A smart contract is a computerized transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract, it is not currently inherently "smart" as a separate attribute of contract type. A blockchain-based smart contract is visible to all users of said blockchain. However, this leads to a situation where bugs, including security holes, are visible to all but may not be able to be quickly fixed. Such an attack, difficult to fix quickly, was successfully executed on The DAO in June 2016, draining US$50 million in Ether while developers attempted to come to a solution that would gain consensus.[2] The program on the blockchain had time requirements in place before the hacker could access the funds, and remove funds from The DAO contract. A hard fork of the blockchain was done to claw back the funds from the attacker before the time limit expired.[14]
Structures
The mechanism depiction of the topic clarifying.
Principle
See blockchain and
Precision
Generality of the method or theory.
Generality
Generality of the method or theory.
Application
Mainly in land law.
Examples
| Platform | Application 1A Links |
|---|---|
| C# | App A; App B; |
| Catia | App A App B |
| Dynamo | App A App B |
| Grasshopper | App A App B |
| Java | App A App B |
| JavaScript | App A App B |
| OpenFrameworks | App A App B |
| Processing | App A App B |
| Python | App A App B |
| Rhino Script | App A App B |
Future Directions
Avoid the term Discussion as this will be addressed on Talk.
