Why Smart Contracts Are Not Yet Smart – Ighomaria Prosper
Smart contracts according to those who develop them are contracts that are “enforceable by code”. Like they say Code is Law.
But are these smart contracts really smart?
In the evolution of matters arising,can they be smart enough to respond to what is on ground.
Smart Contracts 1.0
Smart contracts were possibility in Bitcoin using a scripting language like Forth,but one could not do much with it.
One could do basic contracts like only pay this to John at this time etc.
Many developers tried to build a more extendable layer on top of Bitcoin but with the structure of the Bitcoin software and its community it was a daunting endeavour.
Smart Contracts 2.0
Having been writing for Bitcoin magazine founding his own crypto media outlet and working on the bitcoin software,Vitalik Buterin saw an opportunity to create something better,he would create a general decentralized computing network,where smart contracts can be executed and decentralized applications can run autonomously.
They currently millions of smart contracts today but many of them are insecure and dumb hence are not smart.
They cannot be updated after their creation and that calls for more concerns for them to be ultra secure and respond to life occurrences.
Smart Contracts 3.0
The way blockchain are built makes them non intrusive hence they cannot be attacked because nothing can get added but these makes non interactive with real world data.
Another thing is that for scalability reasons,smart Contracts cannot add an extra layer to themselves,that would mean increase in storage size.
Another problem comes in the form of the data itself,are we going to get the data from one entity or through consensus in a decentralized manner.
These three problems makes current smart contracts dumb.
For smart contracts to receive data from the real world and react accordingly,they need data from oracles.
Like in the Nollywood movies,villagers usually consult a deity(Oracle) to possess knowledge about past,present or future occurrences so as to take adequate actions,to them an Oracle is a source of truth.
Oracles are no different,they are media of information but when centralized such truth carries doubt.
So smart Contracts will be smart if they can be secure and to be able to interact with real world data
Published at Fri, 16 Aug 2019 00:32:33 +0000
Bitcoin Pic Of The Moment
✅ Marco Verch is a Professional Photographer and Speaker from Cologne. ? This image can be used under Creative Commons 2.0. Please link to the original photo and the license.
By marcoverch on 2017-12-03 20:40:02
