maraoz.comComputational Contracts
I’ve been studying and working with smart contracts for a long time. I remember learning about them for the first time through a talk by Mike Hearn (former bitcoin developer) which completely blew my brains out. I’m such a fan of the concept that the name of the company which later became OpenZeppelin was originally… Smart Contract Solutions. I’ve always believed smart contracts would change the world (which kinda already happened), but heck… I also always hated the name “smart contract”. With all due respect to Nick, who coined the term, it sucks. I couldn’t ever come up with a convincing alternative, so I just used “smart contracts” and swallowed my tears.
HOWEVER, I recently came across an alternative which I really, really liked:
✨computational contracts✨.
It’s more precise, unambiguous, complete, and it sounds a lot less like a buzzword. A computational contract is a contract that is defined, enforced, and/or executed computationally. That’s it! Clear and simple. Almost self-explanatory.
I know it’s probably too late to change how everyone calls smart contracts computational contracts, but I had to try. If you agree, please start using “computational contracts”. If you don’t, ignore this post and have a nice day :)
Acknowledgements
I first heard “computational contracts” in Lex Fridman’s interview with Stephen Wolfram.