The rise of smart contracts - Ethereum

The Ethereum public blockchain emerged in 2014 as an open source project and alternative to the Bitcoin blockchain — specifically designed to be ‘the world’s super computer’. Through the introduction of ‘smart contract’ capability, applications built on #Ethereum can automate a range of business dealings between parties. In theory, without the need for human intervention from a legal perspective. Smart Contracts are not actually a new concept, with theoretical work having been undertaken in the 1990s.

However underlying #blockchain technology has made them a reality today. With smart contracts it is possible to hardcode the stipulations of an agreement between parties into a self-executing #blockchain programme. For example, ‘If the price of #Bitcoin surpasses $5,000 party A pays party B a fee’. This is a very basic example of a financial legal contract that could be coded and automatically executed using a smart contract. In the travel industry we might imagine commissions between hotels and aggregators being settled in such an automated manner in the future.