Alonzo brings Smart Contracts to Cardano

Alonzo's hard-fork will bring smart contracts to Cardano. Let’s have a look at the history and the potential of smart contracts. We dare to think big about the future of technology.

History and the potential of smart contracts

You may be surprised that the idea of smart contracts is older than Bitcoin. Nick Szabo was the first man on the planet who mentioned the term smart contract in 1994. Notice that at that time, there was no decentralized blockchain network. In his work, Nick Szabo described smart contracts in the following way:

A smart contract is a computerized transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract. The general objectives of smart contract design are to satisfy common contractual conditions (such as payment terms, liens, confidentiality, and even enforcement), minimize exceptions both malicious and accidental, and minimize the need for trusted intermediaries. Related economic goals include lowering fraud loss, arbitration and enforcement costs, and other transaction costs.

The key observation is that a smart contract is able to execute the terms of the contract and, at the same time, minimize the need to trust intermediaries. At this point, Szabo’s perception of smart contracts meets with the concept of decentralized blockchain networks that…