smart contract
4 synonyms for smart contract, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.
Noun — A program stored on a blockchain that carries out the terms of an agreement — releasing funds, transferring ownership — when it is called and its conditions are met. It does not run by itself: someone or something has to send a transaction that triggers it.
Synonyms
Rare, literary or technical
Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.
How to use smart contract
The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.
deploy a smart contract
smart contract audit
smart contract address
interact with a smart contract
smart contract bug
A term of art. It is neither necessarily smart nor a contract in the legal sense, and lawyers often point this out.
Etymology
Coined by the American computer scientist Nick Szabo in 1996.
Full origin of smart contract →Frequently asked questions
Is a smart contract a legal contract?
Not automatically. It is code that carries out steps when conditions are met; whether it also creates enforceable legal obligations depends on the law of the relevant country and on what the parties actually agreed. Some jurisdictions have started to address the question directly, but the two are separate ideas.
What happens if a smart contract has a bug?
Because the code runs exactly as written and typically cannot be changed after deployment, bugs can cause funds to be locked or drained, and transactions are generally not reversible. This is why projects commission audits before deploying, though audits do not guarantee the code is free of faults.
What is the difference between a smart contract and a dApp?
A smart contract is the program running on the blockchain. A dApp, or decentralised application, is the whole product, usually a website or app that gives people a friendly way to interact with one or more smart contracts underneath.
