An smart contract on a DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology context) is a contract that is automatically validated by a decentralized committee of computational nodes. Specifically is a self-executing code with the terms agreed by a seller and a buyer. This code and the agreements exist across a distributed, decentralized DLT network. A smart contract avoids the necessity to have an external central third party or legal system to validate the contract. This has obvious advantages (automation, decentralization, scalability, immutability) but also risk and disadvantages as there are legal concerns and different laws on each country to be considered.

Smart Contracts on IOTA

  • [1]“IOTA SCs are smart contract programs run by an approved committee on the second layer (off-tangle). The committee of nodes collectively updates the ledger by submitting signed transactions (using threshold signatures) to the Tangle.”
  • As a note here IOTAs smart contracts are developed in rust and use webassembly [2].

Smart Contracts on Cardano

  • For cardano blockchain smart contracts are executed on-chain similar to Ethereum but are writen in PLOTUS an smart contract lenguage made with Haskell [3]

References

Going forward

  • Expect more blogposts and information on Smart contracts for DLTs!