> I'd argue that smart contracts are new, though they're not inherently linked to currencies necessarily. I don't know any practical use for them outside the cr

> I'd argue that smart contracts are new, though they're not inherently linked to currencies necessarily. I don't know any practical use for them outside the cryptocurrency/NFT/blockchain speculation niche, but they're a cool invention. I think the fuddy-duddy web2 folks call those lambda cloud functions or something like that. Except in web3 land you pay per execution while the web2 peeps charge per, umm, execution? Though they’re obviously different because the smart contracts can change the state of the blockchain while lambda functions can only modify their own database. And a smart contract can act as an oracle to the outside world while lambdas are restricted to web2 APIs.