The relatively recent and disruptive technology behind one of the most searched and articulated terms of 2017 “blockchain” is still unknown by many professionals from all the industries, including the IT sector, where blockchain technology is being explored, proactively implemented and each time more popular, but still in a pre-boom stage that needs to ripen to create the real disruption that blockchain is intended to.

Blockchain holds multiple usages, business applications, create value and many other additional features that could be mentioned here. But what’s truly valuable on blockchain technology? What can human being get from this technology? How will it help the world to be a better place? All of them questions flying around the blockchain universe, and at the end, the questions that will have to be answered if blockchain is here to stay or just a temporary fashion.

(Infographic summary of blockchain here: https://blockchainhub.net/blog/infographics/what-is-a-blockchain/ )

One of the multiple applications of the blockchain is the development of “smart contracts”. A smart contract is nothing else than a contract executed by itself under predetermined (and coded) conditions previously agreed by the parts separately. It sounds like a typical contract, it actually is, but why smart? It’s smart because is running and executed in a blockchain, therefore leveraging the distributed nature of this technology.

So, which real need is covered by smart contract? In my opinion, main one is lack of trust. If we have a self-executed contract where I have coded the conditions to be met, why do I need to know my counterpart? Not necessarily required anymore. In that case, will there be tons of contract templates and mine will be just adapted? Or will I customize my own contract according to my specific needs? As mentioned, smart contracts is not yet fully integrated in our daily life. On the other hand, user tends to be resistant about leaving a contract ownership to a third party (in that case, the blockchain) that afterwards will need to be supported by a human, due to the high degree of variables which might be uncovered by a contract, so how do I plan contingencies?

A lot of challenges ahead, but lot of answers being worked at the backend. Many news to come and so interesting the way technology is aligning with the human evolution, which would open another discussion: is technology moving with the human? is the human who is being moved by the technology? Afterwards technology is made by humans, but then, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence prompted in the landscape…