An empirical analysis of smart contracts: platforms, applications, and design patterns

Smart contracts are computer programs that can be consistently executed by a network of mutually distrusting nodes, without the arbitration of a trusted authority. Because of their resilience to tampering, smart contracts are appealing in many scenarios, especially in those which require transfers of money to respect certain agreed rules (like in financial services and in games). Over the last few years many platforms for smart contracts have been proposed, and some of them have been actually implemented and used. We study how the notion of smart contract is interpreted in some of these platforms. Focussing on the two most widespread ones, Bitcoin and Ethereum, we quantify the usage of smart contracts in relation to their application domain. We also analyse the most common programming patterns in Ethereum, where the source code of smart contracts is available.Comment: WTSC 201

Standardizing Smart Contracts

In the evolving context of distributed ledger technologies, the standardization of smart contracts is necessary. Smart contracts are tamper-proof computer programs. Due to their security and flexibility, it is possible to exploit smart contracts in a wide variety of use cases. In particular, it could be possible to automate legally recognized contracts by leveraging smart contracts. To this extent, some standards regarding the proper management of smart contracts are surging. However, there are still many technological misconceptions regarding smart contracts. This study describes smart contracts from multiple perspectives and identifies and clarifies some of the most common misconceptions regarding smart contracts. This study also provides some guidelines and insights on the proper management of smart contracts. This study can be a valuable resource for future standards on smart contracts

Smart Contracts Implementation, Applications, Benefits, and Limitations

The world today has realized the vast technological evolution that has greatly shaped the production and management functions of business enterprises. Traditional contracts can take weeks or even months to initiate, and there have been numerous instances of breaches and lack of trust for contracts in both the private and public sector. A smart contract can be defined as a self-executing contract that utilizes blockchain technology to digitally enforce, verify, or facilitate the performance or negotiation of a contract. Owing to the security and decentralized system exhibited by blockchain technology, smart contracts can foster transaction credibility between contracting parties without the necessity of third parties as exhibited in traditional contracts. Any business organization that aims at achieving greater heights in management and production dimensions must consider utilizing robust technologies that are aimed at bolstering its competitive edge. Owing to the newness of smart contracts, characterized by very few studies on the same, this research reviews how smart contracts through blockchain technology can be implemented in an organization to enhance performance and outlines the applications, benefits, and limitations associated with such contracts. Keywords: Blockchain technology; smart contracts; smart contract applications; smart contract benefits; smart contract implementation; cryptography; cryptocurrency DOI: 10.7176/JIEA/9-5-07 Publication date:September 30th 201

Application of Blockchain Smart Contracts in E-Commerce and Government

With technological advances and the establishment of e-commerce models, business challenges have shifted to online platforms. The promise of embedding self-executing and autonomous programs into blockchain technologies has attracted increased interest and its use in niche solutions. Using qualitative interviews, this paper sought the opinions of the eleven industry leaders regarding smart contracts. Findings reveal that the technology is gaining momentum in e-commerce, particularly in financial transfer, record-keeping, real estate, and property management, insurance, mortgage, supply chain management, data storage, authorization of credit, denaturalized intelligence, aviation sector, shipping of products, invoice financing and other domains. The significant benefits of widespread adoption and deployment of smart contracts include their capability to deliver decentralization, efficacy, cost-effectiveness, transparency, speed, autonomy, transparency, privacy, and security, encouraging the emergence of novel business models. Albeit these benefits that revolutionize online transactions, the technology faced multifaceted challenges. Smart technologies are only a decade old and are not advanced in security, transparency, cost-effectiveness, and regulatory framework. Furthermore, organizational, and technical challenges limit their deployment: incompatibility with legacy systems, scalability, bugs, speed, and lack of talent and understanding regarding smart contracts. Consequently, policymakers, developers, researchers, practitioners, and other stakeholders need to invest effort and time to foster the technologies and address pertinent issues to enable the global adoption of smart contracts by small and big businesses

Remedies When Contracts Lack Consent: Autonomy and Institutional Competence

Autonomy-based theories hold that enforceable contracts require the knowing and voluntary consent of the parties. In defining knowing and voluntary, however, autonomy theorists have paid little attention to the remedy that will be granted if consent is round to be lacking, or to the question of what obligations (if any) will be enforced in place of the unconsented-to contract. In this paper, I expand on Michael Trebilcock\u27s argument that considerations of institutional competence-specifically, the relative ability of courts and private actors to craft acceptable substitute obligations-should sometimes play a key role in defining what counts as knowing and voluntary consent