How can smart contracts eliminate intermediaries in transactions?
If you have ever bought or sold something online, you probably used a platform or a service that acted as an intermediary between you and the other party. These intermediaries, such as PayPal, eBay, or Airbnb, provide trust, security, and convenience, but they also charge fees, impose rules, and collect data. What if you could bypass them and transact directly with anyone, anywhere, anytime, without relying on a third party? That is the promise of smart contracts, a type of self-executing code that runs on a blockchain network.