Cryptocurrencies and other blockchain applications make headlines, but smart contracts play a critical role in allowing blockchains to communicate and share information effectively.
Continue readingAuthor: SC-Admin (Page 2 of 6)
The Covid-19 pandemic presents a “unique opportunity” to update the traditional M&A process through the use of blockchain technology and “smart contracts,” says Norton Rose Fulbright lawyer Coco Chen, making recent collaborative pilot projects in this area among Canada’s big law firms even more relevant today.
Continue readingPublic chain projects Nervos and Cardano have jointly launched a research initiative to enhance the security of smart contracts by improving Unspent Transaction Outputs (UTXOs), one of the most common accounting methods first adopted by the Bitcoin network.
Continue readingSmart contracts can handle large numbers of virtual coins worth hundreds of dollars apiece, easily making financial incentives high enough to attract adversaries. Unlike traditional distributed application platforms, smart contract platforms such as Ethereum operate in open (or permission-less) networks into which arbitrary participants can join. Thus, their execution is vulnerable to manipulation by random adversaries—a threat that is restricted to accidental failures in traditional permissioned networks such as centralized cloud services.
Continue readingSmart contracts are programs which have utility. In and of themselves, they are value-free and inherently neutral. From this perspective, the Shariah value assigned is of permissibility. The Islamic legal maxim states:
“Permissibility is the state of all things by default.” [al-ashbah Wal-Naza’ir]
Continue readingA number of US states are passing specific blockchain and smart contract enabling legislation, including a law making blockchain records admissible in Vermont, and in Arizona in April 2018 which made clear that “writing” included blockchain records and both Arizona and Tennessee have passed laws which defined smart contracts as:
Continue readingThe moment where I saw this was when someone asked me about smart contracts and said,
“smart contracts are not really contracts, because there’s no way to enforce them. When a contract says ‘make all reasonable effort,’ how does a smart contract account for that.”
Continue readingDevelopers can write the smart contract lines of code using the native language of a blockchain system. In Ethereum, developers use the Solidity native language. The contract codes can be used in various kinds of applications such as transferring money when certain sets of conditions have been met.
Continue readingSmart contracts have some limitations. Smart contracts can suffer from “hidden knowledge” and we still need a third party in the following case: arbitration, transactional attorneys, programmers, and third party involvement to structure the contracts. The ability to integrate external data is a major concern as it represents a real challenge.
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