• What exactly is a Smart Contract?

• History of Smart Contracts

• Characteristics of Smart Contracts

• Top programming languages for Smart Contracts

  • Solidity

  • RUST

  • VYPER

  • Yul

• Real World Applications of Smart Contracts

  • Conclusion

What exactly is a Smart Contract?

Smart Contracts are small programs that live on the ledger on the block chain. Just like any contract, the “smart” contract lays out the terms of the agreement, and automates the execution of an agreement so that all the parties involved are made aware of the outcome immediately without the involvement of a middleman. Whenever transactions happen, a function is called that invokes the smart contract tied to this transaction. These contracts live on the blockchain because it is necessary for these contracts to be made available for people who run transactions on the blockchain.

History of Smart Contracts

Smart contracts were first proposed by Nick Szabo who was a Cryptographer and programmer in 1996 long before blockchain made its presence. His definition of a smart contracts as digital protocols for information transfer that use “smart” programs to be executed when certain conditions are met was way ahead of its time by more than 10 years. However, in 1996, his proposal could not be implemented because the technology, the distributed ledger did not exist then. In 2013, Ethereum platform made it possible to use smart contracts in practice. Today there are many platforms that allow for smart contracts, but Ethereum still remains the most popular blockchain that allows for the use of smart contracts.

Characteristics of Smart Contracts

Transparent: Smart contracts are visible to everybody when they are run on public networks. They can be traced by anybody but they can be made confidential by encryption.

Immutable: Smart Contracts are immutable by default once they are deployed. Once they are created, there is no way for them to be modified making it extremely difficult to break the contracts among its participants. However, in the Ethereum blockchain, smart contracts can implement the “SELF-DESTRUCT” that allows the smart contract to be deleted or replaced by a new improved contract.

Distributed: Smart contracts are distributed by all the nodes connected to the network. Everyone has a copy of the conditions in the contract and cannot be changed by the participants.

Efficiency: One of the main requirements of smart contracts is that they record all the terms in a very detailed and precise manner. They can execute transactions very fast and result in saving many hours for businesses using traditional processes since they eliminate middlemen.

Top programming languages for Smart Contracts

Solidity

It is one of the most widely adopted languages for writing smart contracts. It is an object-oriented language tailored for the implementation of contracts. It has been widely used for writing contracts on the Ethereum blockchain. C, C++, and Python are the inspiration behind Solidity. Some of the notable blockchains using Solidity built on the EVM network are:

• Polygon

• Avalanche

• Chainlink

RUST

It is a language that is type-safe, and memory safe. Rust data structures are very small and compact. It is a typed programming language that is fast and memory efficient. RUST has the best design and development practices and gives the users options to modify them if they want to. Major platforms that support the RUST languages are:

• Solana

• Polkadot

• OpenEthereum

• Zero-chain

• Bitcoin Cash

VYPER

It is a python based programming language used for creating smart contracts on the Ethereum BlockChain. It was designed to improve upon Solidity and address some of the security issues that were found in Solidity and remove certain unsafe practices and make it more readable. It has fewer features than Solidity and hence makes it easier to audit. It was created to complement Solidity and not replace it. Platforms that use VYPER are:

• Polygon

• Polkadot

• Avalanche

• ChainLink

Yul

It is a new entrant to building smart contracts. It is an intermediate language that can be compiled to bytecode to address the requirements of different kinds of back-ends. It is simple to create while translating from Yul to bytecode. It also ensures the readability of programs by offering constructs such as functions, if-then-else statements, and switch statements. It is now emerging as one of the top languages because of its simplicity and flexibility.

Real World Applications of Smart Contracts

1. Supply Chain management

2. Insurance

3. Clinical Trials

4. Loans and Mortgages

5. Real Estate

6. Cross-border money transfer

Conclusion

There is a need for more improvement in the development of smart contracts. However, smart contracts are revolutionizing the way contracts are being drawn today and making life easier. It is disrupting many industries such as financial services, real estate, manufacturing, and health care. It is only a matter of time before this technology is completely flushed out and the law stays abreast of these changes.

A year ago I decided that I wanted to learn more about blockchain and dabble in web3 development. Everybody was talking about Bitcoin, Ethereum, NFTs, smart contracts, and more. I was intrigued by this technology and as a developer and software engineer, I was interested in learning how I can code and develop interesting apps using this technology.

I had read articles, was intrigued by apes going for thousands of dollars, and just didn’t understand what everything meant and how they all came together. Just wrapping my head around the idea that these jpegs are worth a ton of money baffled me, but one of the most important things that drew me to web3 was the concept of decentralization.

The idea that data is no longer owned and controlled by large institutions but instead owned completely by the user was enticing.

Starting to learn web3 development

I started looking at resources to learn and code in web3. Since I already came from a software engineering background and was very familiar with many programming languages, I was one step ahead, but I was still overwhelmed. I felt it was a different way of thinking through problems when building in web3 vs web2. There are so many chains, layers, tokens, smart contracts… Where do I even start?

My journey started with understanding the fundamentals of blockchain technology. My learning style is always to read about the technology and practice writing code, but I had to understand some basic concepts in crypto, blockchain, and smart contracts.

Used YouTube as my guide

I happened to come across Professor Gary Gensler’s MIT OpenCourseware course, 15.S12, Fall 2018 Blockchain and Money on YouTube. Professor Gensler is amazing in it! Thoroughly enjoyed his talks, banter, and everything. I started getting a little familiar and comfortable with the terminology and concepts...

I also started constantly consuming more videos on YouTube. Another notable one to mention is A Complete Visual Walkthrough into How Smart Contracts Work, FULL EPISODE with Anders Brownworth

There are countless other resources on YouTube and I have spent many hours every day going through these courses, writing small snippets of code on remix, while just reading through many repos on Github.

Choose an area of focus

I also learned that it was essential for me to choose one area of focus and learn about it very deeply to become familiar with the terminology and core concepts. Ethereum is the most obvious choice here and you can find a large number of resources, a ton of GitHub repositories, and articles around it. This is where I started.

On Ethereum, Solidity is a language used to develop smart contracts and I needed to learn it fast. I spent many hours going through the Solidity docs and OpenZeppelin docs.

Other useful resources to get started in web3

Recently, I got a chance to spend some time going through Patrick Collins’s 32-hour course on blockchain Learn Blockchain, Solidity, and Full Stack Web3 Development with JavaScript – 32-Hour Course. Patrick has done a fantastic job breaking down the basics of these core concepts in blockchain development and for most people transitioning from web2 to web3, it is a no-brainer to dive into. The course was thorough and well thought off. I even think it is worth it to go through it a couple of times to thoroughly understand the concepts.

I also found myself spending my mornings reading content on NFTs, Web3, and Blockchain, on Mirror, Substack, and Hashnode. These sites are rich in Web3 content where writers and developers dive deeper into their favorite subjects.

Newsletters like Coindesk, Decrypt, and the Defiant are good places to start to keep up with the latest news in the Blockchain and Crypto world.

And not to forget the podcasts, which I have found to be the maximum utilization of my time. What better way to do my daily chores around the house cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, and walking my dog while listening to blockchain-related podcasts? This is the maximum utilization of my time! I will list my favorites in a future blog. Stay tuned!

My journey in learning blockchain, web3, and crypto continues. I learn something new every day and am enjoying every bit of it. It is still a relatively small, but rapidly growing community, but these communities are very helpful. I have seen that developers and technologists are willing to help each other out and encourage everybody to succeed!