Smart contracts: how they might (or might not) transform business

The killer app many people argue of blockchain technology is smart contracts. That's really what I want to focus on this case study, smart contracts in general and some examples of the application of smart contracts and why people are so excited about this particular aspect of blockchain technology.

So first, what is a smart contract? Well, the way I like to explain a smart contract is by giving the example of a dog and a dog owner and a dog walker. If you're a dog owner who's very busy, you may hire a dog walker to take your dog for walks during the day while you're at work. But there's a trust involved with whether the dog walker is actually taking the dog on the agreed upon route. Well, if you imagine a dog that has a GPS chip around its neck, and the dog walker takes the dog on the agreed upon route, the GPS chip can then signal to the network that the agreed upon route has been completed. And then the smart contract that's sitting on a blockchain that receives that signal and can verify, yes the GPS chip has gone agreed upon route can then issue a payment automatically to the dog walker. So it's a way to both verify that what was agreed to has been completed, smart contracts would verify that something has been completed, but also then to make a payment to the party, in this case the dog walker. That's in essence what a smart contract is. It's a way to automate a process and you can often make a payment alongside that as well.

So there are many things that people are excited about using smart contracts for bonds are certainly I think one of the many use cases where smart contracts can make a lot of sense. Bonds have regularly scheduled payments of interest in principle and there's owners who sometimes trade these bonds who, you know, where blockchain and smart contract to keep track of all that. UBS and other banks have already started developing the technology around smart bonds.