Smart Contracts: What Are They?

The blockchain-stored programmes known as “smart contracts” launch when certain criteria are satisfied. Smart contracts are frequently used to automate agreements so that all parties are informed of and confident in the result. Without the need of any middlemen, smart contracts are carried out in a decentralized environment. Additionally, they streamline the process and start the subsequent step when requirements are satisfied. Smart contract development can be done by blockchain development firms using languages like Solidity, Rust and Viper.

Blockchain coded “if-then” statements are the basis for smart contract functionality. The actions are carried out by the network of computers when the predetermined conditions are satisfied and verified. The behaviors might be:

• Releasing money to the proper people.
• Notifications are sent.
• Issuing a ticket or car registration.
  

  Types of Smart Contracts

  Smart legal contracts: Smart legal contracts are a legally binding contract in which the contractual obligations are defined and are executed automatically by a computer program. By using smart legal contracts we can expand several industrial sectors making its execution to be automated.

   

  Decentralized Autonomous organizations: DAOs are special communities of blockchain sticking to specific rules coded into blockchain contracts combined with governance mechanisms.Any action taken by the community members can be replaced by a self-enforcing code and regulated.

   

  Application Logic contracts: It Encloses the codes which are application dependent and is also in touch with other blockchain contracts.It can accomplish the connection of functionalities across the platform.

Smart Contract Languages

The smart contract language is defined as the programming language used by smart contract developers to write the code. This is the foremost and fundamental part of the development of the smart contracts process. The smart contract languages you must need to know are

1. Solidity

Solidity is a high-level object-oriented language for creating smart contracts. Smart contracts are programs that control how accounts behave in the Ethereum network. Solidity is statically typed and, among other things, enables inheritance, libraries, and sophisticated user-defined types.

2. Vyper

The other used EVM language and it is a PYTHON-based language. It is a contract-oriented programming language that uses strong security, easy code readability, and compiler simplicity making the language more developer-friendly.

3. Rust

Like other languages, Rust can run on Ethereum but it can be used to deploy other chains like Solana, and Terra and build blockchains like Polkadot. Rust is the performance-based language used outside the smart contracts also. Its rich type system and ownership model enable developers to eliminate bugs at a faster compile time.

Use cases of smart contract

1. Smart contracts in finance: Finance industries are seeking everyone’s attention nowadays as being one of the highest revenue generating spaces.Handling finance industry isn’t an easy job.Datas are the main part of finance area.Each and every record must be handled safely and in an organized way.These can done and executed by smart contracts as they provide transparent way.By inheriting smart contracts,these industries can avoid accounting,auditing and reporting costs. 
2. Supply chain management: Industries involved in supply chain management functionality,always have a need for a tracking system and verification process to be carried out.Tracking supply chains( items) will be the main part as misuse or fraud activities may happen. By smart contract establishment,the tracking can be keenly observed to avoid thefts and reduction in verification.Smart contracts regulate the verification while simultaneously neglecting odd ones.
3. Trading process: In trading,we are aware of many fraud activities and hackings.Many unknown third party may get into the trading platform causing collapse of the entire system.The third party involvement and the broker fees can be neglected by using smart contracts in trading.
4. Voting: During voting, fraud activities occur which are made by humans too these days.Instead of using computer systems we can step into smart contracts to avoid these problems.Smart contracts are a simple and cost-effective solution to this problem. They can be used to validate a voter’s identity and record their vote.This information can be used to initiate an action after the voting process. 
5. Insurance: Smart contracts can initiate the claiming process of insurance taken by the individuals. They automate error checks and determine payout amounts depending on the type of policy taken by the individual or organization.Smart contracts reduce processing times,costs and makes dramatic reduction in errors. Smart contracts are used for any accident and the immediate activation of claims.
6. Property ownership: Property ownership from buildings, land etc can be digitally recorded by usage of smart contracts as they are faster and cost-efficient. Smart contracts can remove the need for expensive services provided by housing brokers. This new technology enables sellers to handle the transactions on their own.
7. Mortgages: Smart contract mortgages allow the buyer and seller to digitally agree to the sale before processing the payment. Once this is done, the contract would update the property ownership details to reflect the change of ownership.

8.Escrow: Escrow is the advanced use case of smart contracts. Escrow refers to the process of storing value between the parties when the contract is still active.With smart contracts it is made  possible to automate the entire function making the service provider submit its outputs.There are many companies using smart contracts for this purpose.

9. Storage of records: Blockchain technology helps the medical industry to save the entire databases of personal health records to be securely encrypted. Blockchain enabled smart contracts are also used in issuing prescriptions, storing receipts, general stock management, storing test results etc.
10. Peer to peer transactions: Smart contracts are used for launching fundraising platforms for selling items on the internet.Peer to peer transactions are safer with smart contract deployment.Investors of all sizes make use of this platform for successful transactions.

Cost for Smart contract development

The price to create and implement a smart contract on Ethereum depends on a variety of variables. Learn about a few key elements that might give you an estimate of the cost of deploying a smart contract on Ethereum.

Since its debut in the cryptocurrency world, Ethereum has become a hot topic among fans of the blockchain. People have started to consider using Ethereum for developing and deploying smart contracts over other Blockchain platforms in recent years due to its increasing popularity.

However, estimating the actual cost for smart contract deployment on Ethereum even before the start of the process is challenging. This blog sheds light on the estimated cost and key factors that must be considered before starting with smart contract deployment on Ethereum.

We’ve estimated the cost for smart contract deployment on Ethereum based on the following scenarios

1. The anticipated fee levied by Ethereum—which may depend on the following variables:

gas costs

Creation of contracts 

Storage of contracts

Execution of a contract

The following factors may affect the anticipated fee a smart contract development business will charge you:

• How many individuals are involved in the creation of smart contracts?
• Tools and technology needed for Ethereum smart contract implementation
• Cost of project management
• Post-delivery and maintenance services
• Let’s go over both situations in more depth.

Scenario 1: Gas fees for Ethereum are expensive.

Gas costs are the charges incurred when using a single unit of gas on a Blockchain network. Ethereum utilizes a mechanism of gas and Gwei to price the constrained space on each new block (a term used for a very small amount of the Ethereum cryptocurrency). Any action that modifies data on Ethereum, such as creating and transferring NFTs or implementing smart contracts, needs gas. Every new activity has a different gas cost, depending on its complexity and size.

Making smart contract

According to information provided in Ethereum’s yellow paper, the basic cost for a “create” operation is 32000 gas, while adding a new transaction to the Ethereum block costs 21,000 gas, bringing the total cost of creating a smart contract on Ethereum to 53000 gas. The transactional charge is calculated using the following basic formula:

Price = Total Gas Used * Gas Price

Licensed Storage

Additionally, Ethereum costs for the contracts’ storage. The whitepaper states that Ethereum costs 20,000 gas for every 256 bits, or 640000 gas for every kilobyte of data. The gas price will increase in direct proportion to the amount of your contract.

Execution of a contract

The next step is to execute the contract’s startup procedure after paying the gas fees and storage costs. The block of code that is written for allocation reasons is referred to as this. Each byte of RAM allotted for a contract is 200 Gwei.

In Scenario 2

The amount of personnel (programmers, UI/UX designers, Quality analysts, Project managers, and others) allocated by a smart contract creation business for the smart contract deployment process will have a significant impact on the cost of the deployment of the smart contract.

Technologies and equipment

For the purpose of developing smart contracts on Ethereum, certain tools and technologies are needed, including Truffle, Web3.js, Visual Studio Code, Ganache CLI, Parity, and Node.js. The projected cost for deploying smart contracts on Ethereum may also include the subscription fees for some tools.

Cost of project management

The cost of deploying a smart contract on Ethereum will also increase if a smart contract development business uses project management tools like Trello, Jira, Confluence, etc. for testing and tracking deadlines.

Post-delivery and maintenance services

You might need to fix some bugs and errors after deploying Smart Contracts on Ethereum to its full potential. A business that creates smart contracts may also bill customers promptly for maintenance and post-delivery services.

Conclusion

Even after taking into account the information shared in this blog post, beginners may still find it challenging to calculate the precise cost, even though we have mentioned the approximate cost and some factors that must be taken care of before beginning with the smart contract deployment on Ethereum. Expert consultation might be requested in this situation.