Introduction

Traditionally, when two entities decide to engage in a business deal, they require the services of a lawyer who oversees the terms and boundaries on which the deal will run. Getting the services of a lawyer is capital intensive and to remove the lawyer middleman, blockchain technology provides smart contracts as an alternative.

What are smart contracts?

Smart contracts are the digital version of a lawyer that automatically executes business agreements once the parties involved have reached their part of the bargain. Smart contracts are programming agreements, encoded into the blockchain and are self-executing.

Popular smart contracts

There are many smart contracts out there, I will try to list the popular 10. They are:

• Ethereum: Computer programs, usually written with a solidity programming language are the fundamental building blocks of the Ethereum application layer. They are immutable and follow the “if this, then that” logic.

• Binance Smart Chain(BSC): Created to lower transaction costs and provide a better platform to build Decentralized Applications (DApps) and Decentralized finance. The community adopted them because of the lower gas fee offering as compared to Ethereum.

• Tron: Developed in 2017 by Justin Sun in Singapore. Tron smart contract is an open-source network that is integratable to the Ethereum network and enables users to carry out fast transactions. Tron's flexibility and adaptability made it widely accepted.

• Arbitrum: This smart contract is designed to scale Ethereum. It can handle 40,000 transactions per hour; much faster than Ethereum.

• Cardano: With Cardano, the revolutionary feature of zero-knowledge was introduced in smart contracts and enhanced privacy in blockchain.

• Solana: Rust is the language developers employ to develop smart contracts called programs here. Solans was developed to address scalability issues like low transaction speed and high cost in the then-present ( Ethereum and Bitcoin) blockchains.

• Polygon: Founded in 2017 in Mumbai as a layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum, meaning it was built on top of Ethereum blockchain, to improve its scalability and efficiency.

• Algorand: Written in the Transaction Execution Approval Language (TEAL), Algorand smart contracts are built on the Algorand blockchain to enable the creation of risk-free, scalable and efficient decentralized applications.

• Avalanche: Offers interoperability with Ethereum tools, is less energy intensive, consumes the same amount of energy as 46 U.S homes according to Carbon Ratings Institute, and is fast, scalability and more secure compared to legacy smart contracts.

• Polkadot: Focused on solving interoperability and scalability issues, Polkadot allows businesses to access real-world data integration in smart contracts.

Advantages of smart contracts.

In place of traditional contracts made possible by lawyers, Smart contracts reduce the wait time, and increase the transparency and security needed to enable closure of business deals. Smart contracts also have successfully removed intermediaries in contract execution, thus reducing costs. Smart contracts are immutable and cannot be changed once encoded into the blockchain, thus promoting trust and transparency.

Disadvantages of smart contracts.

The major concern about smart contracts lies in their security. If the contract's code has an error or is not well audited, attackers can take advantage of this loophole to alter the initial terms of the agreement. In addition, the rigid or immutable nature of smart contracts does not give room for adjustments once the contracts are encoded on the blockchain.

Conclusion.

In this article, we have explored what a smart contract is and the uniqueness of the individual networks that support them.

In all, we can see that the later versions of smart contracts developed after the legacies ( Bitcoin and Ethereum), were developed to improve security, fastness, energy concerns and scalability.

Introduction

Traditionally, when two entities decide to engage in a business deal, they require the services of a lawyer who oversees the terms and boundaries on which the deal will run. Getting the services of a lawyer is capital intensive and to remove the lawyer middleman, blockchain technology provides smart contracts as an alternative.

What are smart contracts?

Smart contracts are the digital version of a lawyer that automatically executes business agreements once the parties involved have reached their part of the bargain. Smart contracts are programming agreements, encoded into the blockchain and are self-executing.

Popular smart contracts

There are many smart contracts out there, I will try to list the popular 10. They are:

• Ethereum: Computer programs, usually written with a solidity programming language are the fundamental building blocks of the Ethereum application layer. They are immutable and follow the “if this, then that” logic.

• Binance Smart Chain(BSC): Created to lower transaction costs and provide a better platform to build Decentralized Applications (DApps) and Decentralized finance. The community adopted them because of the lower gas fee offering as compared to Ethereum.

• Tron: Developed in 2017 by Justin Sun in Singapore. Tron smart contract is an open-source network that is integratable to the Ethereum network and enables users to carry out fast transactions. Tron's flexibility and adaptability made it widely accepted.

• Arbitrum: This smart contract is designed to scale Ethereum. It can handle 40,000 transactions per hour; much faster than Ethereum.

• Cardano: With Cardano, the revolutionary feature of zero-knowledge was introduced in smart contracts and enhanced privacy in blockchain.

• Solana: Rust is the language developers employ to develop smart contracts called programs here. Solans was developed to address scalability issues like low transaction speed and high cost in the then-present ( Ethereum and Bitcoin) blockchains.

• Polygon: Founded in 2017 in Mumbai as a layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum, meaning it was built on top of Ethereum blockchain, to improve its scalability and efficiency.

• Algorand: Written in the Transaction Execution Approval Language (TEAL), Algorand smart contracts are built on the Algorand blockchain to enable the creation of risk-free, scalable and efficient decentralized applications.

• Avalanche: Offers interoperability with Ethereum tools, is less energy intensive, consumes the same amount of energy as 46 U.S homes according to Carbon Ratings Institute, and is fast, scalability and more secure compared to legacy smart contracts.

• Polkadot: Focused on solving interoperability and scalability issues, Polkadot allows businesses to access real-world data integration in smart contracts.

Advantages of smart contracts.

In place of traditional contracts made possible by lawyers, Smart contracts reduce the wait time, and increase the transparency and security needed to enable closure of business deals. Smart contracts also have successfully removed intermediaries in contract execution, thus reducing costs. Smart contracts are immutable and cannot be changed once encoded into the blockchain, thus promoting trust and transparency.

Disadvantages of smart contracts.

The major concern about smart contracts lies in their security. If the contract's code has an error or is not well audited, attackers can take advantage of this loophole to alter the initial terms of the agreement. In addition, the rigid or immutable nature of smart contracts does not give room for adjustments once the contracts are encoded on the blockchain.

Conclusion.

In this article, we have explored what a smart contract is and the uniqueness of the individual networks that support them.

In all, we can see that the later versions of smart contracts developed after the legacies ( Bitcoin and Ethereum), were developed to improve security, fastness, energy concerns and scalability.