Say what? You didn't even start to read the article and I can feel your mind spinning. I confess mine was too, when I read about this new thing, but every time this happens, I know I'm in for something great, as long as I can keep my mind on it.

So, let's take things one at a time.

Bitcoin can't have smart contracts, right? This is Ethereum realm.

Well, kinda wrong. Bitcoin can have smart contracts, only they are smaller and limited. A regular transaction is a smart contract, if you want: funds are getting from one account to another only if certain conditions are met: real in and out addresses, correct private key and signature, etc.

What Ethereum did was to create a much richer context and more complex contracts. But this came at a cost:  the contracts must be executed network-wide, by all nodes, if we want to keep the "immutability" part of the blockchain. Usually, this means a lot of resources.

But what if we can find a way to execute smart contracts in a reliable way, _without storing them in the blockchain_? In other words, how can we keep in the blockchain only the results of a transaction, but be 100% sure that the contract executed correctly, even if we have no idea about what the contract was about, who were the parts and so on?

Introducing Scriptless Scripts. It's something called "zero-knowledge proof"  and it's based on a cryptographic "magic" that can prove with absolute certainty that _something_ happened, without revealing _who and what_. 

It is way too complicated to put it all here (and, although I _think_ I understood what's all about, I doubt that it's of interest right now, it's way too theoretical). 

But it's important as a potential scenario, one in which we can create more complex applications on top of the current Bitcoin network, using just mathematical advancements and cleverly applied cryptography. In this scenario, the blockchain won't be clogged with extra data, there won't be any more complexities involved and the variety of apps that can be built is limitless. 

I learned all this form a presentation from Andrew Poelstra, from a talk he gave at the Scaling Bitcoin event held by Stanford. If you really are curious about it and have an hour and a half to spend listening about complex mathematical approaches, Schnorr signatures and applied cryptography, by all means, look at the [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pd6xHjLbhs&feature=youtu.be&t=1h35m58s).
***
_I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at [Dragos Roua](http://dragosroua.com) where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua._
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<center>_You can also vote for me as witness here:
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_If you're new to Steemit, you may find these articles relevant (that's also part of my witness activity to support new members of the platform)_:
* [Rewards: Were Does The Money Come From?](https://steemit.com/steemit/@dragosroua/steemit-newbie-faq-rewards-were-does-the-money-come-from)
* [Netiquette: How To Avoid Being A Steem Douche?](https://steemit.com/steem/@dragosroua/steemit-newbie-faq-netiquette-how-to-avoid-being-a-steem-douche)
* [Witnesses: What Are They And Why Should You Care?](https://steemit.com/steemit/@dragosroua/steemit-newbie-faq-witnesses-what-are-they-and-why-should-you-care)
* [How Can I Mine Steem And What CPU / GPU Power Do I Need For That?](https://steemit.com/steemit/@dragosroua/steemit-newbie-faq-how-can-i-mine-steem-and-what-cpu-gpu-power-do-i-need-for-that)
* [The Beginner Guide To Not Getting Hacked On Steemit](https://steemit.com/steemit/@dragosroua/the-beginner-guide-to-not-getting-hacked-on-steemit)