Blockchain-based Smart Contracts - Applications and Challenges

TL;DR

This paper provides a comprehensive survey of blockchain-based smart contracts, highlighting their diverse applications and the challenges faced in their implementation and adoption.

Contribution

It offers an extensive overview of current smart contract applications and discusses the key challenges encountered in their deployment across various blockchain platforms.

Findings

Smart contracts are used for identity management and automating business processes.

Security and scalability are major challenges in smart contract deployment.

There is a need for standardized frameworks to address existing challenges.

Abstract

A blockchain-based smart contract or a "smart contract" for short, is a computer program intended to digitally facilitate the negotiation or contractual terms directly between users when certain conditions are met. With the advance in blockchain technology, smart contracts are being used to serve a wide range of purposes ranging from self-managed identities on public blockchains to automating business collaboration on permissioned blockchains. In this paper, we present a comprehensive survey of smart contracts with a focus on existing applications and challenges they face.