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Contracts are agreements between humans. Therefore, the only "correct" outcome is the intended outcome. If your code has bugs or errors or security vulnerabili

Contracts are agreements between humans. Therefore, the only "correct" outcome is the intended outcome. If your code has bugs or errors or security vulnerabilities, those will all lead to incorrect behavior. That's why smart contracts aren't useful.

TimJRobinson 4y ago
May as well say "that's why software isn't useful" which obviously isn't true. Most contracts end in the happy case 99% of the time, it seems very worthwhile to automate that happy case and fall back to the traditional legal system in the failure case where either party isn't happy with the outcome.
- habinero 4y ago
  Contracts aren't for when things go right, they're for when things go wrong. It's just as true to say contacts aren't "necessary" 99% of the time, because people follow through on the agreement.
  - halpmeh 4y ago
    I think you’re conflating legal contracts and smart contracts. Legal contracts are instruments used by two or more parties that outlines their responsibilities to one another in a way that is protected by civil law. A smart contract is just a program that runs on the blockchain.
    - pooper 4y ago
      Do you see how the name "smart contract" makes no sense? They aren't smart. In fact, they are obviously dumb. They do what the code says. They aren't a contract in the legal sense. Smart contracts are neither smart, nor contracts.
      - halpmeh 4y ago
        So we’ve gone from debating the technical merits to debating the name? The name likely comes from options contracts, which are technically contracts but traded like equities. Most options are very simple tuple: (equity, strike price, call / put). The smart in smart contract can mean writing a smarter option contract.
      - worik 4y ago
        > They aren't a contract in the legal sense. I think they can be, I am not a lawyer. But if our "legal contract" is "do what the code says" then the smart contract is a legal contract. Is it not?
    - habinero 4y ago
      Sure, but they're called smart contracts because they're meant to literally codify an agreement. If you just want to trigger actions based on something and then store it, you don't need the machinery of the blockchain.
    - oblio 4y ago
      Then call it "blockchain app" instead. Just like Tesla's AutoPilot, smart contracts were named that for a reason, to mislead (and make money along the way).
hypnotortoise 4y ago
Contracts are agreements between legal entities, human and non-human. "Smart" contracts in it's current form allows for automatic execution between parties, where one or both parties can be another SC. I would put them im the juridical person or non-human camp legally speaking. This property can generate quite an advanced exexutiom through cascadation effect with a lot of deployed SC on the blockchain and is publicly auditable by anyone and will be audited by a lot of people if a huge amount of financial stake is present. I personally see an immense upside in this approach rather then current contract law in TradFi, based solely on promises and insurance to customer front. IMO one such deployed contract does indeed not make it smart but an inter-connected network of them can generate systems that can be indeed called smart.

TimJRobinson 4y ago

May as well say "that's why software isn't useful" which obviously isn't true. Most contracts end in the happy case 99% of the time, it seems very worthwhile to automate that happy case and fall back to the traditional legal system in the failure case where either party isn't happy with the outcome.

habinero 4y ago
Contracts aren't for when things go right, they're for when things go wrong. It's just as true to say contacts aren't "necessary" 99% of the time, because people follow through on the agreement.
- halpmeh 4y ago
  I think you’re conflating legal contracts and smart contracts. Legal contracts are instruments used by two or more parties that outlines their responsibilities to one another in a way that is protected by civil law. A smart contract is just a program that runs on the blockchain.
  - pooper 4y ago
    Do you see how the name "smart contract" makes no sense? They aren't smart. In fact, they are obviously dumb. They do what the code says. They aren't a contract in the legal sense. Smart contracts are neither smart, nor contracts.
    - halpmeh 4y ago
      So we’ve gone from debating the technical merits to debating the name? The name likely comes from options contracts, which are technically contracts but traded like equities. Most options are very simple tuple: (equity, strike price, call / put). The smart in smart contract can mean writing a smarter option contract.
    - worik 4y ago
      > They aren't a contract in the legal sense. I think they can be, I am not a lawyer. But if our "legal contract" is "do what the code says" then the smart contract is a legal contract. Is it not?
  - habinero 4y ago
    Sure, but they're called smart contracts because they're meant to literally codify an agreement. If you just want to trigger actions based on something and then store it, you don't need the machinery of the blockchain.
  - oblio 4y ago
    Then call it "blockchain app" instead. Just like Tesla's AutoPilot, smart contracts were named that for a reason, to mislead (and make money along the way).

hypnotortoise 4y ago

Contracts are agreements between legal entities, human and non-human. "Smart" contracts in it's current form allows for automatic execution between parties, where one or both parties can be another SC. I would put them im the juridical person or non-human camp legally speaking. This property can generate quite an advanced exexutiom through cascadation effect with a lot of deployed SC on the blockchain and is publicly auditable by anyone and will be audited by a lot of people if a huge amount of financial stake is present. I personally see an immense upside in this approach rather then current contract law in TradFi, based solely on promises and insurance to customer front. IMO one such deployed contract does indeed not make it smart but an inter-connected network of them can generate systems that can be indeed called smart.