Smart contracts: A brief Introduction from primafelicitas's blog

Contracts are a vital component to the successful functioning of today's modern society because they regulate the majority of the areas of both our professional and personal life.

Smart contracts play a very important part as an introduction to the Blockchain technology since they help to make the transactions that are taking place more safe and secure while also allowing them to function in an ordered manner. In addition to that, it assists other components, such as programmes that are running on these platforms, in becoming even more accessible. However, what exactly is a smart contract?

What is a smart contract?

Basically, a "smart contract" is a computer program that may be performed on the Ethereum network. It's a package of data and code that can be found at a certain address on the Ethereum blockchain and performs a defined set of operations.

Ethereum accounts can be classified as a sort of smart contract. This indicates that the individual has a balance and that they are able to send transactions via the network. However, a user does not have control over them; rather, they are installed on the network and run according to the instructions that were given to them. After that, user accounts are able to engage in conversation with a smart contract by sending transactions that carry out a function that is specified on the smart contract. Similar to a traditional contract, a smart contract can stipulate the terms of its use and automatically put those terms into effect through computer code. The default setting prevents the deletion of smart contracts, and all interactions with them are final and cannot be undone.

How do smart contracts work?

A smart contract is a computer programme that may be executed on a blockchain or other distributed ledger system to handle predefined business logic.

Step 1: The desired actions of the smart contract in response to events or conditions are defined by business teams in conjunction with developers.

Step 2: Simple events include things like a payment being approved, a package being received, or a certain utility metre reading being reached.

Step 3: Advanced logic might be programmed to do more complex activities, such as calculating the value of a derivative financial instrument or triggering the release of an insurance payment.

Step 4: Once the logic has been designed, the engineers will test it using a smart contract writing platform. A second team performs security testing once the programme has been written.

Step 5: Smart contract security could be reviewed either by an in-house expert or an outside firm.

Step 6: After the contract is approved, it is published to a blockchain or other distributed ledger.

Step 7: Following deployment, the smart contract is set up to receive event updates from an "oracle," which is essentially a cryptographically secure streaming data source.

Step 8: The smart contract will be carried out once it has received the required combination of events from the required number of oracles.

Advantages of smart contracts

The transaction records stored in a blockchain are encrypted, making it exceedingly difficult to gain unauthorised access to them. In addition, on a distributed ledger, each record is tied to the record that came before it and the record that will come after it. This means that hackers would need to change the entire chain in order to change a single record.

Reliability and transparency

When there is no mediator and all parties involved have access to the same encrypted records of transactions, there is no reason to suspect that any data has been tampered with for ulterior motives.

Accuracy, Speed and efficiency

The contract is automatically carried out once the predefined condition is reached. Due to the digital and automated nature of smart contracts, there is no need for processing physical papers or reconciling the inevitable discrepancies that arise from human error.

When smart contracts are used to conduct financial transactions, there is no need for intermediaries, and as a result, there is no need for the time delays and additional expenses that come along with using intermediaries.