Smart contracts have been around for a yet in the crypto space, most recently debuting on Cardano. The Founder of Cardano, says the term “smart contracts”should be changed. Smart contracts have become even more important to the entire industry of decentralized finance (DeFi). This is cause they are required to build the protocols on which these decentralized applications (DApps) run. As they have grown in popularity Smart contracts platforms like Ethereum and Solana have recorded great success with them.
Cardano has been working for a long time to bring smart contracts to its network; and on September 12th, that dream became a reality with the final launch of the Alonzo Hard Fork Combinator (HFC). The arrival of smart contracts capability on the network was widely celebrated in the industry. Yet, Founder Charles Hoskinson now believes that the term does not adequately describe what Cardano does.
The disagreement over the term “smart contracts”; arose after a user pointed out that what Cardano does is not at all like smart contracts. @ KtorZ_ a user, pointed out that the network deviates from what established smart contracts platforms do; labeling the network as “atypical.”
Cardano Does Not Have Smart Contracts
Hoskinson responded with a tweet in which he agreed with the user, stating that the term “smart contracts” does not adequately describe what the platform does. Instead, it is agreed that a new term, rather than smart contracts, is required to describe the network’s capabilities. This new term, agreed upon by the founder, is programmable validators. This term, according to the user who pointed it out, better describes Cardano’s programmability.
Also, he stated that explaining, unlike existing platforms like Ethereum and Solana, one could not simply deploy a smart contract on Cardano. “Instead, validators are implicitly referred to by hashes prior to use, and they are revealed upon activation,” the user explained. This means that the validators have no effect on the network. All they really do is “validate.”
In closing, KtorZ explained that the term “smart contracts” felt like an imprecise term. “I’d prefer more specific terms for ‘on-chain validators’ and ‘off-chain code.’ If anything; ‘smart-validators’ sounds already much better to me;” they added.
Source: NEWSBTC
