Ledger: Top Blockchain Smartcontract Platforms And Their Differences From One Another - Articles

Top 5 SmartContract Ledger Development Platforms:

The five most popular smartcontract platforms, Ethereum, Hyperledger Fabric, Corda, Stellar, and Rootstock, are discussed in this section. Ethereum, Hyperledger Fabric, and RSK have Turing-complete smartcontracts; however, Corda and Stellar have Turing-incomplete smartcontracts. Ethereum and RSK are public smartcontract platforms (i.e., permissionless), meaning anyone can join the network at any time.

8 Key Distinctions Between The Major Blockchain Ledger Platforms:

Corda has permissioned type of ledger, and supports smartcontract function, meaning you can write and deploy smartcontracts in Corda Blockchain. Corda is an open-source blockchain platform for developers to create permissioned distributed solutions. Tezos is an open-source blockchain platform used worldwide to build decentralized blockchain networks.

 

Hyperledger Hub is a project developed by The Linux Foundation to openly develop centralised and decentralized blockchain platforms. Hyperledger Sawtooth is another scalable blockchain platform in the Hyperledger Hub, designed to develop distributed ledger applications and networks. Enterprises are using Hyperledger Sawtooth to create systems that are both scalable and reliable, as well as deploy blockchain solutions that are highly secure.

 

This platform provides users with a safe, scalable platform for supporting their confidential contracts and private transactions. Hyperledger users can build secret channels to specific members of a network, which allows the transaction data to be seen by only selected participants. Hyperledger Fabric also supports the Open SmartContract Model, which can support a variety of data models, such as Accounts and Unspent Transaction Output, or UTXO, models (see the sidebar).

 

Unlike Ethereum, which uses Virtual Machines (VMs) to execute smartcontracts (i.e., EVMs), Hyperledger Fabric smartcontracts utilize Docker containers to execute the code. EVM is compatible with other blockchains like Solana and Avalanche, which allows developers to migrate their smartcontracts across platforms. With well-written rules, well-defined development guidelines, and Ethereums native coding language called Solidity, it has proven comparatively simple to deploy smartcontracts and Dapps to the platform.

 

Ethereum is also better than any other smartcontract platform when it comes to developer numbers (200,000), making its developer community one of the most vibrant and responsive. The Ethereum network envisions using blockchain technology to not only support a decentralized payments network, but to also store computer code that could be used to fuel decentralized, tamper-proof, financial contracts and applications.

 

Ethereum is yet another blockchain use-case which supports bitcoin (BTC) and in theory, it is not supposed to actually compete with bitcoin. BTC and ETH are both digital currencies, but Ethers primary goal (ETH) is not to establish itself as an alternative monetary system, but rather to facilitate and monetize operations on the Ethereum networks smartcontracts and decentralized applications (dapps) platform. Tezos In development since 2014, Tezos is a more mature platform supporting decentralized applications, smartcontracts, and newer financial instruments like NFTs, which can be thought of as a modern variant on trading cards tied to a digital asset.

 

Cited Sources:

https://www.itransition.com/blog/smart-contract-platforms 

https://geekflare.com/blockchain-platforms-for-finance-applications/ 

https://pixelplex.io/blog/smart-contract-platforms/ 

https://cointelegraph.com/blockchain-for-beginners/smart-contract-development-platforms 

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/031416/bitcoin-vs-ethereum-driven-different-purposes.asp 

https://www.cronj.com/blog/smart-contracts-platforms/ 

https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/feature/Top-9-blockchain-platforms-to-consider 

https://www.blockchain-council.org/blockchain/top-10-blockchain-platforms-you-need-to-know-about/ 

https://blog.logrocket.com/top-blockchain-development-frameworks/ 

 

Ledger: Can a Power Systems Rely on Blockchain Technology? - Articles

Source: https://www.cigre.org/article/GB/the-application-of-blockchain-technology-in-power-systems

Existing system challenges can be resolved by using the Blockchain digital ledger technology to assist multiple power applications at the generation, transmission, distribution, and consumption stages. Trading renewable energy certificates and credits based on actual energy usage can be automated using blockchain ledger technology.

Context:

Blockchain “Distributed Ledger Technology” (DLT) is capable of managing and storing transactions involving numerous parties. DLT can be used for any multi-step transaction-based application that demands security, traceability, and visibility because of its immutable, secure, and transparent nature. By removing the need for a middleman and connecting the buyer and seller directly, blockchain technology lowers the expenses and fees associated with transactions.

In the P2P network, blocks that are identically stored for each market participant are used to store any transactions. The owner's digital signature authorises each transaction in this digital ledger, ensuring its authenticity and protecting it from fraud. Based on who may add data to the chain and access the distributed ledger, there are three different types of blockchain platforms: Public, Private, and Consortium.

Can blockchain be implemented in power grids? - Articlesonblockchain

Using blockchain digital ledger has many advantages, few of them are secure, transparent, and robust network with a tamper-proof data record accessible to all participants in the network. With these features, the existing difficulties in the power system can be addressed in the production, transmission, distribution, and consumption phases.

How does blockchain help renewable energy? - Articlesonblockchain

• The actual transactions between the producer and consumer for consuming the renewable energy can be automated.

• Payments in the P2P microgrids can be created through Blockchain smartcontracts.

• For coordination of wholesale power trading, blockchain removes the necessity of middle man management like brokers, indexing agencies, specialised energy trading, or risk-management software.

• Interactive dashboards on customer utility, grid interactions, payment information, and energy consumption can be managed efficiently using the blockchain distributed ledger technology.

What Infrastructure used in blockchain technology for energy trading? -Articlesonblockchain

The critical components for implementing blockchain technology are full nodes (computers), partial nodes (smartphones or smart meters), a communication network, and a software platform.

Conclusion:

Blockchain digital ledger technology has the potential to drastically improve energy markets. However, because present implementations are on a small scale, extensive work is required before any wider implementation can be a serious disruptive force in this field.

Note: For case studies on Power Systems Rely on Blockchain Technology refer to below links:

[0] - https://www.cigre.org/article/GB/the-application-of-blockchain-technology-in-power-systems

[1] - https://www.ceew.in/cef/masterclass/explains/the-role-of-blockchain-technology-in-the-power-sector

Ledgers: Uses of Blockchain Smartcontracts - Article

Uses of Smart Contracts:

Blockchain Smartcontracts can be used in almost all fields, starting from healthcare to supply chain to financial services. Some examples are as follows:

Voting system:

Smartcontracts provide a secure environment making the voting system less susceptible to manipulation. Votes using smartcontracts would be digital ledger-protected, which is extremely difficult to decode.

Moreover, smartcontracts could increase the turnover of voters, which is historically low due to the inefficient system that requires voters to line up, show identity, and complete forms. Voting, when transferred online using smartcontracts, can increase the number of participants in a voting system.

Healthcare Industry:

Blockchain can store the encoded health records of patients with a private key. Only specific individuals would be granted access to the records for privacy concerns. Similarly, research can be conducted confidentially and securely using smartcontracts.

All hospital receipts of patients can be stored on the blockchain and automatically shared with insurance companies as proof of service. Moreover, the digital ledger technology can be used for different activities, such as managing supplies, supervising drugs, and regulation compliance.

Supply chain Industry:

Traditionally, supply chains suffer due to paper-based systems where forms pass through multiple channels to get approvals. The laborious process increases the risk of fraud and loss.

Blockchain can nullify such risks by delivering an accessible and secure digital version to parties involved in the chain. Smartcontracts can be used for inventory management and the automation of payments and tasks.

Financial services Industry:

Smartcontracts help in transforming traditional financial services in multiple ways. In the case of insurance claims, they perform error checking, routing, and transfer payments to the user if everything is found appropriate.

Smartcontracts incorporate critical tools for bookkeeping and eliminate the possibility of infiltration of accounting records. They also enable shareholders to take part in decision making in a transparent way. Also, they help in trade clearing, where the funds are transferred once the amounts of trade settlements are calculated.

Cited Source: https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/valuation/smart-contracts/

Ledger: Challenges of Blockchain Smartcontract - Articles

Source: blog.pwc.lu

Below are the few of the challenges of blockchain smartcontracts:

Time & Money: Smartcontracts cost time and money to write, Whether they're drafted by a lawyer or reviewed by one, or even if they are written by an HR professional, contracts require a good deal of energy and are not an inexpensive undertaking.

Immutable: One of the main challenges blockchains faces is the immutability of smart contracts. Immutability means that the rules of a protocol cannot be modified once smart contracts are deployed on the blockchain. It is the truth that they assist in locking out the bad actors that may change the smartcontract information.

Usability challenges: Unlike traditional software development, smartcontracts require developers to have business knowledge and understand non-traditional programming languages, primarily Solidity. They also must comprehend formal methods of cryptography and networking.

Attacks: Attacks such as the Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) attack and the Parity Wallet hack have cost millions of dollars simply as a consequence of naïve bugs in the smart contract code. 

Impact challenges: Visa at present can handle around 24,000 transactions every second. Ethereum, the largest blockchain for smart contracts, can handle only 14 transactions a second. To increase the impact and efficiency of smartcontracts in our society, the speed of information sharing on the blockchain needs to accelerate, the security needs to be bolstered, and its accessibility to coders and the public alike needs to increase.

Ledger: Advantages of Blockchain Smartcontract - Articles

Autonomy: The benefit of blockchain smartcontract is that they are decentralized in nature. They are direct dealings between parties and do not require the involvement of any third party in the process. This allows smartcontract to be transparent.

Accuracy: Smartcontracts are based on the requirement that all the terms and conditions are recorded explicitly.

Transparency: The Smartcontract build trust and transparency between two parties by using blockchain technology that it minimizes the dispute cases to zero. The possibility of a disagreement is avoided by the certainty and lack of between-the-lines terms in a smartcontract.

Record keeping: The blockchain stores all smartcontract transactions in chronological order and makes them accessible, along with the full audit trail. To provide complete secrecy, the parties involved can be safeguarded cryptographically.

Fraud-less: Identification and decrease of fraudulent activities. The blockchain stores smart contracts. It is extremely difficult to forcefully alter the blockchain since it requires a lot of compute. A smartcontract breach can also be discovered by network nodes, and in that case, the attempt is flagged as invalid and not recorded in the blockchain.

Fault-tolerance: Because no single person or organisation controls the digital assets, one-party dominance and situations in which one part pulls out do not occur. Additionally, because the platform is decentralised, the contract is still in place even if one node disconnects from the network.

Increased trust: Smartcontracts are automatically carried out and upheld. These agreements are also unchangeable, unbreakable, and incontrovertible since they are immutable.

Cost-efficiency: The use of smartcontracts reduces expenses by doing away with the necessity for middlemen (brokers, attorneys, notaries, witnesses, etc.). reduces paperwork as well, saving money and producing less waste.

Ledger: Capabilities of Blockchain Smartcontract - Article

 

In general a contract is an enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. Similarly, in blockchain, we have a concept called Distributed Ledger Smartcontract which is a computer programs or protocol used to automate transactions that are stored on a blockchain and execute in response to meeting certain conditions. 

Below are few of the capabilities of Distributed Ledger Smartcontracts:

Accuracy: Smartcontracts are accurate to the limit a programmer has accurately coded them for execution.

Automation: Smartcontracts can automate the tasks/ processes that are done manually.

Speed: Smartcontracts employ computer code to automate procedures, reducing the time needed to complete all activities requiring human contact. Because everything is programmed, the time it takes for the code in the smart contract to run equals the time it takes to complete all of the tasks.

Backup: The shared ledger is maintained by each node on the blockchain, making this service the best possible.

Security: Cryptography can guarantee the assets' security. Even if the encryption is cracked, the hacker will still need to change every block that follows the one that was changed. Please be aware that a small or medium-sized business would be unable to complete this assignment due to its extreme difficulty and computational requirements.

Savings: Smartcontracts reduce costs since they do away with the need for middlemen. Additionally, little to no money is spent on the documentation.

Manages information: Smartcontracts hold information about an application, such as domain registration and membership records, and manage users' agreements.

Multi-signature accounts: Smartcontracts allow for the distribution of funds through multi-signature accounts as soon as all parties have signed off on the arrangement.

Ledger: Features of Blockchain Smartcontract - Article

 

Distributed Ledger Smartcontracts:

These are very simple programs with conditions in it, stored on blockchain to run till the condition is met. This digital program used to automate the execution of an agreement between the parties allowing them to perform successful transactions without any involvement of central authority / agency. 

While I was checking through the Internet on the Features of Smartcontract, I have come across below list of points and they are unique in a way based on my understanding when compared with smartcontracts controlled central governing authority / agency.

Below are the few of the Features of Ledger Smartcontracts:

Immutable: Once deployed smart contract cannot be changed, it can only be removed as long as the functionality is implemented previously.

Distributed: Everyone on the network is guaranteed to have a copy of all the conditions of the smart contract and they cannot be changed by one of the parties. A smart contract is replicated and distributed by all the nodes connected to the network.

Transparent: Smart contracts are always stored on a public distributed ledger called blockchain due to which the code is visible to everyone, whether or not they are participants in the smart contract.

Secure: Smart contracts can only perform functions for which they are designed only when the required conditions are met. The final outcome will not vary, no matter who executes the smart contract.

Some of the other Characteristics of ledger smartcontract:

Autonomy: There is no third party involved. The contract is made by you and shared between the parties. No intermediaries are involved which minimizes bullying and grants full authority to the dealing parties. Also, the smart contract is maintained and executed by all the nodes on the network, thus removing all the controlling power from any one party’s hand.

Customizable: Smart contracts have the ability for modification or we can say customization before being launched to do what the user wants it to do. 

Trustless: These are not required by third parties to verify the integrity of the process or to check whether the required conditions are met.

Self-verifying: These are self-verifying due to automated possibilities.

Self-enforcing: These are self-enforcing when the conditions and rules are met at all stages.

These features alone are not making Smartcontracts unique in the blockchain technology, Features along with Capabilities are main backbone for the distributed smartcontracts. I have posted an article on Capabilities for more information - "Ledger: Capabilities of Blockchain Smartcontract - Article " 

Source: 

[0] https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/smart-contracts-in-blockchain/

Ledger: What is Blockchain Smartcontract - Article

Smart contracts are simply programs stored on a blockchain that run when predetermined conditions are met. They typically are used to automate the execution of an agreement so that all participants can be immediately certain of the outcome, without any intermediary's involvement or time loss.

How the information in the Distributed Ledger smartcontracts are stored?

Distributed Ledger Technology stores the information in a secure and accurate using advanced cryptography technology. All the information stored in this can be accessed using "keys" and cryptographic signatures. Once the information is stored, it becomes an immutable database and is governed by the rules of the network.

What exactly we store on the blockchain...!

Ledger technology in blockchain is used to store information about the transactions, share the transaction data across network, Synchronize the data across distributed network allowing multiple participants involved in blockchain and keeping the up to-date. For more information on the features of smartcontract, I have posted an article " Ledger: Features of Blockchain Smartcontract - Article " 

Source: 

[0] https://www.ibm.com/in-en/topics/smart-contracts

Ledger: Articles On Blockchain Smartcontract

Source: https://cdn.wallstreetmojo.com

The code and agreements contained within it live on distributed, decentralized blockchain networks. The terms of the contracts derive from blockchain users agreements to execute a program concurrently through a blockchain deployment system.

Once the contract is approved, it is deployed to the existing blockchain or another distributed ledger infrastructure. The prototype uses the Blockchain and smart contract technologies, and is designed to record the financial transactions within the terms of a building contract. There are different outcomes of this study resulting from developing the prototype of the contract management within financial activities using a cryptocurrency paradigm with the blockchain on various scenarios for the delivery of works at construction sites.

 

Smart contracts may also benefit from blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies for maintaining verifiable records of all activities related to executing complex processes, and which cannot be altered after the fact. The programs underlying smart contracts can be stored within the blockchain or other distributed ledger technologies, and integrated with a variety of payment mechanisms and digital exchanges, which may include Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. With blockchains, we can envision a world where contracts are embedded into digital code and stored on transparent, shared databases, where they are protected against removal, tampering, and modification by contracts themselves.

 

When embedded on blockchain, smart contracts allow for automatic enforcement of contractual terms in a deal, without an involving trusted third party. Just like a vending machine can automatically execute a contract for selling only physical goods contained in it, so too a smart contract built on blockchains can ensure the automatic execution of a contract that is related solely to transactions on blockchain-based assets (De Filippi & Mauro, 2017). Buterin (2013) proposed a decentralised platform for smart contracts on the basis of the blockchain in order to resolve any issues related to the execution context, and enable a global secure state.

 

In other jurisdictions worldwide, contracts are of varying legal status, and therefore, whether or not contracts written in code are legally binding depends on the countrys legal system. In other jurisdictions around the world, contracts have different status so whether a contract written in code is legally binding depends on the countrys legal system. Other legal challenges that could be mentioned are: (i) every country has their own laws and regulations, therefore, it is difficult to guarantee that it is compliant with all regulations, (ii) the terms of a law or conditions are not quantifiable, therefore, modeling those conditions into a smart contract is still difficult to make it relevant and quantifiable to the machines executing it, and (iii) governments are interested in the regulation and monitoring the usage of Blockchain technologies for a number of applications, which means the untrustworthy networks would fall back into a trust less third-party networks, which would therefore, therefore, losing some of their essence .

 

Other legal issues can be cited including:

(i) each country has its own laws and regulations, hence, it is complicated to ensure compliance will all regulations.

(ii) law clauses or conditions are not quantifiable, thus it is still complicated to model these conditions in smart contracts so that they are appropriate and quantifiable for a machine to execute them.

(iii) governments are interested in a regulated and controlled use of the blockchain technology in many applications, however, this means that the untrustworthy network will regress to a third-party trusted network, losing part of its essence [79 ].

Then, operationalisation is introduced to a cooperative web framework, showing steps for executing a smart contract, how actors interact with smart contracts, how operations are performed on a Blockchain network. The provision of smart contracts allows the greater blockchain value capture by setting up fixed transactions according to unique conditions (Angelis and Ribeiro da Silva 2019), a value feature for a network with multiple relationships and roles.

 

Cited Sources:

• https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00207543.2022.2039413 0
• https://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/review/2021/02/05/decentralized-finance-on-blockchain-and-smart-contract-based-financial-markets 1
• https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fbloc.2020.553671/full 2
• https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/definition/smart-contract 3
• https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12083-021-01127-0 4
• https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/smart-contracts.asp 5
• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167739X19316280 6
• https://policyreview.info/glossary/smart-contracts 7
• https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/12/8/1072 8
• https://hbr.org/2017/01/the-truth-about-blockchain 9