CoinDesk’s Smart Contracts Research Report Now Available
Following the production launch of the smart contract platform Ethereum, the industry is set to become a more active hotbed for experimentation. However, Ethereum isn't the only innovator in this area of the blockchain space. CoinDesk Research's 'Smart Contracts' report takes a deeper dive into the subject, moving past the hype to provide readers with a comprehensive overview of how the technology is being shaped by today's innovators and explored by enterprise businesses. The 28-page offering explores the concept from its early formations more than a decade ago, while providing insight....
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Ethereum’s community is standing up to the challenge of securing smart contracts by taking steps to implement the lessons learned from the DAO. Microsoft Research, Harvard University and Inra, a French national research institute that employs 2700 computer science researchers from the “world’s most prestigious universities”, have published a highly technical paper [PDF] on the formal verification of smart contracts. The paper presents a framework to analyze and formally verify Ethereum smart contracts using F*, a “functional programming language aimed at program verification.” The initial....
An insurance and reinsurance industry trade organization headquartered in the UK is launching a new blockchain research project. The London Market Group has announced that it will investigate the use of smart contracts and blockchain for potential applications in the wholesale insurance market. Members of the trade organization include representatives from major firms like Allianz, AIG and Lloyd’s. The organization is working with research outfit Z/Yen on the initiative, which according to statements seeks “to create a common view of the potential benefits that smart contracts could....
With contributions from Zerado, FinTech Network have produced a whitepaper that looks at smart contracts and how they could improve efficiencies within the banking sector. The whitepaper highlights: How smart contracts aim to provide security that is superior to traditional contract law and ways they can reduce other transactional and administrative costs. The workings of Ethereum as one of the best examples of smart contracts in practice. Ways that smart contracts could benefit areas such as mortgages, clearing and settlement, KYC & bonds. How challenges with conceptual misalignment,....
DAMN, a research proposal seeking to provide arbitration for smart contracts, has been presented to the public. Its creators seek feedback to determine its necessity in a growing digital currency ecosystem. Community engagement. DAMN - or Decentralized Arbitration and Mediation Network - has been submitted to public forums and open platforms such as Github, Reddit, etc to seek public participation and voluntary collaboration to achieve a broad community engagement that could lead to funding and partnership opportunities. This could play out well considering that the interest in smart....
Smart contracts are an essential building block within the cryptocurrency ecosystem and are the core of many decentralized applications (dApps). These programs run when predetermined conditions are met to help automate workflows, execute agreements, and carry out other essential tasks that can be governed with “if/when…then…” statements. Programmed by developers, smart contracts are trustless, autonomous, decentralized, operate transparently, and are unable to be reversed or modified. These attributes make smart contracts a useful tool in reducing or even eliminating the need for....