smart contract [English]

InterPARES Definition

No definition in earlier IP projects. ITrust definition not yet developed.

Other Definitions

  • Blockchain Technologies 2016 (†789 s.v. "Smart Contracts"): Smart contracts are contracts whose terms are recorded in a computer language instead of legal language. Smart contracts can be automatically executed by a computing system, such as a suitable distributed ledger system.
  • BlockchainHub Glossary (†807 s.v. "Smart contracts"): are computer protocols that facilitate, verify, or enforce the negotiation or performance of a contract, or that obviate the need for a contractual clause. 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
  • ISO TC307 N38 (United States). 2017. (†834 s.v. "Smart Contract"): Smart contracts, sometimes termed chaincode, are computer programs that execute in a secure environment within the blockchain platform of any node in the network. · Smart contracts encapsulate business logic involving contract terms and conditions between agreeing participants. · The smart contract code determines what transactions are recorded into the blockchain and what information they contain. Smart contracts can be written in a programming language that depends on the blockchain platform. · The application code is stored in the ledger. Transactions can invoke smart contract functions to perform the business logic that is described in the smart contract code. Smart contract code can be stateless or stateful. If required, the code can access external information and systems, via the system integration component shown in Figure 2..
  • ISO TC307 N55 (France). 2017 (†858 ): Set of conditions recorded as code on a distributed ledger and executed automatically by a computing system.
  • ISO TC307 N67 (United Kingdom). 2017. (†841 p.2): set of business terms embedded into a blockchain and executed with transactions. · Note: smart contract can also include a digital representation of a set of business rules and defines conditions under which transactions occur. · Note 2: smart contract is implemented using chaincode.
  • Kiviat 2015 (†822 p.15-16): computer protocols that facilitate, verify, execute and enforce the terms of a commercial agreement.
  • Scaling Bitcoin [2017] (†845 s.v. "Smart contract"): Smart contracts 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.
  • von Haller Gronbaek 2016 (†833 s.v. "Smart contracts"): Smart contracts are computer protocols that embed the terms and conditions of a contract. The human readable terms (the source code) of a contract are compiled into executable computer code that can run on a network. Many kinds of contractual clauses may thus be made partially or fully self-executing, self-enforcing, or both. Smart contracts are not a new concept. The phrase "smart contracts" was coined by computer scientist Nick Szabo, probably around 1993, to emphasise the goal of bringing what he calls the "highly evolved" practices of contract law and related business practices to the design of electronic commerce protocols between strangers on the Internet[6]. An early adaptation of smart contracts is digital rights management schemes. These are smart contracts for copyright licences, as are financial cryptography schemes for financial contracts.

Citations

  • Buterin [2017] (†818 s.v. "Ethereum"): Ethereum does this by building what is essentially the ultimate abstract foundational layer: a blockchain with a built-in Turing-complete programming language, allowing anyone to write smart contracts and decentralized applications where they can create their own arbitrary rules for ownership, transaction formats and state transition functions. (†2117)
  • ISO TC307 N38 (United States). 2017. (†834 s.v. "High-level View of a Blockchain Network): Most business-oriented blockchains include the ability to use smart contracts, sometimes called chaincode. A smart contract is an executable software module that is developed by the blockchain owners and installed into the blockchain itself. When a user sends a transaction to the blockchain, it can invoke a smart contract module which performs functions defined by the creator of that module. Smart contracts usually have the ability to read and write to a local data store which is separate from the blockchain itself and can be updated when transactions occur. The business logic contained in a smart contract creates or operates on business data that is contained in this persistent data store. (†2192)
  • Piasecki 2017 (†815 s.v. 2017-02-20 "Blockchain Terminology-a dev): · A Smart Contract is a simple computer script that represents an implicit contractual agreement between the parties to transact in the way described by that contract ("Code is Law"). Smart Contracts are an important aspects of such Blockchain Projects like Ethereum. In contrast to traditional legal contracts, Smart Contracts do not need a legal team to enforce them, and once put in place they usually cannot be altered. Smart Contracts can contain functions that can be called by creating a specific Transaction. The code execution is deterministic and is carried out by the Miners. · Smart Contracts may be paired with legal contracts (such as in the case of Corda), but that's rarely the case on most Blockchains. (†2106)
  • Walport 2016 (†802 p.18): Smart contracts are contracts whose terms are recorded in a computer language instead of legal language. Smart contracts can be automatically executed by a computing system, such as a suitable distributed ledger system. · The potential benefits of smart contracts include low contracting, enforcement, and compliance costs; consequently it becomes economically viable to form contracts over numerous low-value transactions. The potential risks include a reliance on the computing system that executes the contract. At this stage, the risks and benefits are largely theoretical because the technology of smart contracts is still in its infancy, and some time away from widespread deployment. (†2129)
  • Wood 2014 (†803 p.2): Early work on smart contracts has been done by Szabo [1997] and Miller [1997]. Around the 1990s it became clear that algorithmic enforcement of agreements could become a signfi cant force in human cooperation. (†2074)