Smart Contracts
Smart Contract
● The concept of the smart contract was there well before the advent of
the Bitcoin.
● Computer scientist Nick Szabo detailed his idea of cryptocurrency Bit
gold as a sort of a precursor for Bitcoin.
● He also outlined the concept of smart contract in his 1996 publication.
● In fact, Szabo coined the term smart contract more than 20 years ago.
● Smart contract is a centerpiece and main thrust of Ethereum
blockchain.
● It is the good, bad and the ugly of the blockchain technology.
● It's a powerful feature.
● Improper design and coding of a smart contract, resulted in significant
failures such as DAO hack and Parity wallet lockup.
What Will going to learn
● Design
● Code
● Deploy
● Execute a smart contract.
Learning Objective
● Elements of Smart Contract
● Syntax and Semantics of Smart Contracts (Structure, Solidity
Language)
● Smart Contract Solutions - Problems that can be solved using smart
contracts.
● Use Remix
● Invoke Smart Contract from simple Web Interface
Smart Contract Advantages
● Transfer Assets other than value or cryptocurrency
● Specification of rules for an operation on the blockchain
● Implementation of policies for transfer of assets in a decentralized
network
● Adds programmability and intelligence to the blockchain
● Represents a business logic layer,with the actual logic coded in a
special high level language
● Embeds function that can be invoked by messages that are like
function calls.These messages and the input parameters for a single message are specified in a transaction.
Bitcoin Transactions Vs Ethereum Transaction
Smart Contact and Immutable
● Since a smart contract is deployed in the blockchain,
● It is an immutable piece of code, and once deployed, it cannot be
changed.
● We will have to redeploy the code as a new smart contract
● Somehow redirect the calls from a old contract to the new one.
Contract in Ethereum Blockchain has
● Pragma directive,
● Name of the contract
● Data or the state variable that define the state of the contract,
● Collection of function to carry out the intent of a smart contract.
● Identifiers representing these elements are restricted to ASCII
character set.
● Make sure you select meaningful identifiers and follow camel case
convention in naming them.
Remix
● Web integrated development environment
● Create
● Deploy
● Execute
● Explore the working of few representative smart contracts
● Available at Remix.ethereum.org.
Let's look at three steps in the development of a smart contract
Example Greeter Contract
Simple Storage Example
Example 2
