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Smart Contract Development: What Is It and How to Find a Blockchain Contractor
31 MAY 2022

Smart contract development is a new and extremely innovative yet promising technology that has created a lot of buzzes around the internet. In the future, it expects to replace slow and complex traditional agreements and redefine the ways we vote, seek medical help, buy houses or stocks, and even change how do we shop online.


If you have ever thought about learning how smart contracts work, we are here to help. In this article, we will break down what is a smart contract, in what areas of development it can be used, what companies have already adopted the technology, and how to find a reliable smart contract development company. Let’s go!

What is a smart contract?

Smart contracts are similar to real contacts but paperless and digital. Imagine the situation when you want to buy a house. After you found the property, you need to sign a contract with a seller that states: as soon as you transfer money, he hands the keys. To ensure that no one will cheat and that the agreement has the legal power, you need to pay a realtor firm — a so-called middleman. smart contract development vs traditional contract

The scheme of traditional transactions process

Meanwhile, the idea of smart contract development is to eliminate this third party and make the agreements less complex and expensive. Instead of the middleman, they use a computer code that automatically activates when specific conditions are fulfilled. For example, when money for a house is deposited into a seller’s bank account or a crypto wallet, you instantly get a digital key to the property. That is it, no realtors, no extra fees, no hustle.

So, if you ask us, in short, what is a smart contract? We will say:
The smart contract is an agreement that is automatically executed when certain conditions are met.
smart contract development: how it works - the scheme

The scheme of smart contract work

How do smart contracts work?

There are three pillars of the smart contract development technology:
  • Self-execution.
  • Fulfilled conditions.
  • Blockchain.
1️⃣ First of all, smart contracts do not need manual activation or supervision of a third party. Instead, they activate automatically, when conditions embedded in the computer code are met.

2️⃣ As a second pillar, smart contracts obviously need the written conditions: if the terms described in the agreement happen, the code executes innately.

3️⃣ Last, but not least, smart contract development platforms use blockchain technology to store those automated conditions. Data stored in the blockchain is secured, protected from hacking or traceability, and irreversible.

Cryptocurrencies for smart contracts

Smart contracts require crypto tokens to function. The first-used and the most popular cryptocurrency for the technology is Ethereum, but also they can be run on Solana (SOL), Polkadot (DOT), Ergo (ERG), Cardano (ARG), and others.
Interesting fact: the idea of smart contracts was presented in 1994 by Nick Szabo, way before blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies were created.

4 real-world examples of how you can use smart contracts

The technology is very new and world-changing, so most of the companies that use smart contracts are experimental startups. Some of them survived to this day, some of them appeared too early, when the market was not ready, and have already closed down.

We chose four use-cases from different markets: arts, real estate, and сar rentals. Learn about the apps that have utilized smart contract development and get inspired by their crazy and innovative ideas. Let’s dive in!

Ascribe

smart contract development - ascribe logo

The logo of Ascribe

Berlin-based startup Ascribe started in 2013 with an idea of selling digital artworks online. Now it seems very obvious, but back then the project was fresh and original — the NFT technology was created much later, only in 2017. The logic was simple: artists could list their works and sell them to licensed collectors.

While Ascribe was experimenting with creating their own database and protocols, the blockchain scene has evolved a lot, and many new programs and technologies were introduced. The company open-sourced their codebase on GitHub to anyone interested.

Propy

smart contract development - propy logo

The logo of Propy

Another example of a smart contract development company is Propy, the digital platform for selling and buying houses with much less paperwork. They also became the first case when a real apartment was sold as a collectible NFT using smart contract development technology.

The startup seemed very promising to the investors from the beginning. Among the people who funded the idea was Tim Draper, known for his visionary and successful investments into Tesla, Skype, Twitter, and Robinhood.

Link My Ride

smart contract development - link my ride - decentralized vehicle rental platform

The look of Link My Ride – decentralized vehicle rental platform

Link My Ride is a platform for renting a Tesla. It connects car owners with those who want to rent an electric vehicle for a short period of time. The smart contracts are integrated in Teslas and help to get real-time data and activate the car.

The app was created for a hackathon and currently exists as a hypothetical idea only, but the creator, Matt Durkin, described the architecture and the stack on Devpost, so you can use it as an inspiration or reference for your project.

Coin Rabbit

smart contract development - The logo of Coin Rabbit - a web service providing cryptocurrency loans

The logo of Coin Rabbit – a web service providing cryptocurrency loans

Coin Rabbit is a web service that provides instant cryptocurrency loans with a fixed interest rate — 14% APR. The flow is simple: a user can borrow any amount from 1000 USDT for their crypto deposits and receive the assets within minutes. The loan is unlimited, and a user can pay it back any time without extra hidden fees. To securely transfer funds, and keep deposits protected and secure, the app uses the smart contract technology.

The solution was developed by us, so hit it up if you want to learn more details about blockchain development services.

Where to find a contractor for smart contract development?

To execute a smart contract and embed it to the solution, a developer needs to know how to code in smart contract language, for example in Solidity — the most popular one. Also, the technology includes large transactions, sometimes even multi-million assets. That is why knowing about protection and security is a must for a smart contract development contractor.

Moreover, the agreements often include parts of other smart contracts from open databases, so we recommend working with someone who has had experience with the technology before and gathered some interesting projects in the portfolio. Long story short, we advise to look for 3 things in a smart contracts developer:
  • Blockchain languages knowledge.
  • Technical skills.
  • Previous experience.
If you already have an in-house developer on your team, learning a new language and skills might be expensive and time-consuming. Instead, you can find a smart contract development company that has experience with executing the technology. The costs depend on the complexity of the project and can range anywhere from $7,000 to $50,000.

To sum up

In conclusion, we want to reinforce the main points of the article: what is a smart contract development, how it works, and where to find a professional contractor.

A smart contract is a form of digital agreement, a self-executing blockchain computer program that activates automatically when the terms of the deal are fulfilled.

There are real use-cases of smart contracts in different fields: real estate, digital artworks, car rentals, cryptocurrency. Most of them are new to the market, but worth your attention. Just use them as a source of inspiration or learn from their mistakes.

The technology of smart contracts is relatively new and requires knowledge of blockchain languages and a certain level of technical skills. If you want to bring your idea to the market as soon as possible, you probably do not have time to educate your in-house developers. That is why a smart contract development company is a fast and reliable option to integrate the transaction protocol into your network.

About us

Brivian is a smart contract development company with a deep knowledge of Solidity and extensive experience in Metamask integration, Web3, DApp, DAO and DO development.

We are dedicated to bringing value to our passionate customers by creating high-quality platforms and utilizing cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), Big Data and smart contracts to stay on top of things.

At Brivian, we have experience with smart contracts for platforms providing crypto loans and accepting crypto payments. Check out our portfolio for more details.

To discuss your idea with us, fill out this form and our team will get back to you shortly. 👇🏼

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